THE 



PRE-ADAMITE EARTH 



CONTRIBUTIONS 



THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



JOHN HARRIS, D.D. 

U 

AUTHOR OF THE " GREAT TEACHER," ETC. 



SECOND THOUSAND. 



LONDON. 

WARD AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW. 

\ 0/ zL ( "> 



J 



PREFACE. 



The present volume is intended to be the first of a short 
series of Treatises — each complete in itself — in which the 
principles or laws hereafter deduced, and applied to the 
successive stages of the pre-Adamite earth, will be seen in 
their historical development as applied to individual man ; 
to the family; to the nation; to the Son of God as "the 
second Adam, the Lord from heaven to the church which 
he has founded ; to the revelation which he has completed ; 
and to the future prospects of humanity. It would not be 
difficult to state the reasons which have induced me to 
adopt this particular method of exhibiting theological 
science ; to specify the points in which it differs from those 
methods which may be considered most nearly to resemble 
it ; and to enlarge on the advantages, direct and indirect, 
which it is proposed to secure by it. But, besides that such 
topics, if introduced at all, would require to be treated at 
considerable length, I would rather that the method adopted 



vl 



PREFACE. 



should, as it is gradually unfolded in the successive Trea- 
tises, be allowed to speak for itself. If any explanatory 
remarks respecting it are deemed necessary, they will, it 
appears to me, be more in place at the close of the Series 
than at the commencement. 

This first volume consists of five parts. Of these, the 
first part contains those Primary Truths which Divine Re- 
velation appears to place at the foundation of all the 
objective manifestations of the Deity; the second, presents 
the Laws or General Principles, which are regarded as 
logically resulting from the preceding Truths ; and the third, 
fourth, and fifth parts, are occupied with the Exemplifica- 
tion and Verification of these Laws in the inorganic, the 
vegetable, and the animal kingdoms of the pre- Adamite 
earth, respectively. From this statement it will be seen 
that the first two parts are here as introductory, not to the 
present volume merely, but to the entire series ; and that, 
as exhibiting the process by which the method has been 
arrived at, they will not require, except in substance, to be 
subsequently repeated. 

As Revealed Theology is here seen in organic connexion 
with natural science, a few remarks explanatory of that 
connexion will not be deemed irrelevant. Of the theology 
itself, I will only say, at present, that it is that which I 
believe ; but, inasmuch, as it is exhibited in mere human 
forms of thought and language, I can, of course, expect that 



PREFACE. 



vii 



others will accede to it only as far as they believe it to be 
in harmony with " the true sayings of God." Nor can I be 
insensible that the laws deduced from it will be prejudiced 
in some minds, by the notion that the adoption of them in- 
volves the reception of the theology. But as views dedu- 
cible from the highest grounds are generally found to be 
inferrible also from lower and analogical premises, it should 
be considered, in the present instance, whether these laws 
might not be accepted on such inferior grounds without 
committing the recipient to any ulterior views. Even less 
than this, however, is necessary. For, if the reader should 
demur to adopt the Laws as they are deduced from the Pri- 
mary Truths of the first Part, he has to consider whether 
he is not called on to admit them, as they are sustained and 
inductively verified by the facts adduced in the three con- 
cluding Parts. These facts, I may remark in passing, ad- 
mit of almost indefinite multiplication, but it has been my 
aim to adduce only such and so many as appeared essen- 
tial to the verification of the laws. 

Of the connexion between theology and natural science 
generally, it may be assumed that every one who admits 
that there is a true theology and a true science of nature, 
will admit also that there is a sense, whatever it may be, 
in which the two are related. The mind which elicits and 
embraces both, is one ; so that, however distinct the pro- 
cesses by which it arrives at the knowledge of each, and 



vi 



PREFACE. 



however different the sources and kinds of evidence on 
which that knowledge rests, both branches evince their in- 
herent unison, in the unity of the knowing mind itself. On 
this conviction it is that men no sooner begin to think, than 
they next proceed to examine the laws of thought ; if they 
collect facts, they next inquire for the causes of those facts ; 
and when they have succeeded in developing any of the 
sciences, they then look for the internal bond of union which 
makes them all one. And for such a nexus they seek under 
the unquestioned conviction that it exists; for the con- 
viction simply implies that, as reasoning concerning each 
separate science is possible, so reasoning concerning col- 
lective science must be possible. 

Well had it been for theology and philosophy if the bond 
which unites them had been clearly ascertained, and never 
dissevered. But the erroneous views which some have 
entertained respecting the relation of the two, have origin- 
ated evils only less than those flowing from their unnatural 
separation. The error of Descartes and his followers con- 
sisted not in making theology the starting point of their 
philosophy, but in regarding their metaphysical deductions 
as adequate to explain all physical phenomena. By reason- 
ing only, a priori, or proceeding continually downwards 
from cause to effect, they were not questioning Nature, but 
answering for her; legislating, in effect, where God had 
legislated already; and so " building a world upon hypo- 



PREFACE. 



thesis." 1 There is, however, a wide interval between 
the extreme which makes everything of a principle, and 
that which seeks security from it, by abandoning the prin- 
ciple altogether. 

As surely as the mind is one, the truth to which the 
mind is preconfigured is one. On this ground it is that we 
argue from the known to the unknown ; approach a subject 
of inquiry under the guidance of an antecedent probability 
as to what we shall find in it; and employ analogy and 
hypothesis as instruments of scientific discovery. " How," 
inquires Plato, " can you expect to find unless you have a 
general idea of what you seek?" " The mind," says Lord 
Bacon, " must bring to every experiment a 4 precogitation,' 
or antecedent idea, as the ground of that 'prudens quasstio,' " 
which he pronounces to be the prior half of the knowledge 
sought — " dimidium scientise." Indeed, is not the Novum 
Organum itself of hypothetical origin? " When Newton 
said, ' Hypotheses non fingo,' he did not mean that he 
deprived himself of the facilities of investigation afforded 
by assuming, in the first instance, what he hoped ultimately 
to be able to prove. Without such assumptions, science 
could never have attained its present state; they are neces- 
sary steps in the progress to something more certain ; and 
nearly everything which is now theory was once hypo- 
thesis. Even in purely experimental science, some induce- 

1 Introduction to Butler's " Analogy, &c." 



X 



PREFACE. 



ment is necessary for trying one experiment rather than 
another." 1 These hypotheses, as the language implies, are 
only provisional. They must be of a nature to admit of 
verification ; and be actually subjected to a test which shall 
confirm or explode them. 

In the same provisional manner might principles derived 
from the domain of revealed theology be advantageously 
carried into the province of nature. There is a true deduc- 
tive method in science as well as a false ; and there is a 
right method of employing theological principles in philo- 
sophy, as well as a wrong. Everything depends on the 
manner in which they are employed. The inductive con- 
clusion must be kept distinct from the speculative assump- 
tion. However fruitful the deductive principle may be, it 
can be used only for suggestion, not for demonstration; the 
proof of the view suggested must be of the same nature 
with that of the subject investigated or discussed. 

In the following pages, the principles introduced are to 
be regarded as employed only in this conditional manner. 
The reader is to view them, as far as their application to 
nature is concerned, as entirely tentative or provisional, 
until their applicability has been tested. If on a comparison 
of the inductive truth adduced, with these deductive prin- 
ciples, their applicability is apparent, let the obvious infer- 
ence be accepted, that there is a theology in nature which 

1 Mill's System of Logic, vol. ii. p. 18. 



PREFACE. 



xi 



is ultimately one with the theology of the Bible — that there 
are principles of varied but universal application. 

The attempt which is here made to deduce such principles, 
and to apply them to the successive stages of creation, pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that the whole process of Divine 
Manifestation, including nature, is to be viewed in the light 
of a sublime argument in which God is deductively reason- 
ing from principles to facts, from generals to particulars. 
With the great synthetic Whole ever present to His mind, 
He is seen unfolding the parts of which it consists. In 
order that man may feel the force of this reasoning, his 
mind, equally with the Divine Mind, must pre-suppose, or 
be prepared to admit, the primary truths on which the 
reasoning depends. But besides these, the Great Argument 
implies (as in every case of ordinary reasoning) that there 
are certain ideas or truths in the mind of God, which are 
not yet in the mind of man, and which it is the design of 
the argument to convey. For example — whatever exhibits 
marks of design must have had an intelligent author ; the 
world exhibits marks of design, therefore the world must 
have had an intelligent Author. Here, the major is as- 
sumed alike by God and man ; the conclusion is, at first, in 
the mind of God alone, and the design of the great argu- 
ment is to convey it into the mind of man also ; but the 
attainment of this end depends on the truth of the minor — 
that the world does exhibit marks of design; and how is 



xii 



PREFACE. 



this proposition to be established except by induction? To 
the infinitely blessed G-od, then, the entire process of Divine 
Manifestation is, in its reference to man, a sublime syllo- 
gism, of which the last object and the remotest event are 
already included potentially in the major; the unfolding 
of which is destined to occupy the coming eternity. While 
man, appointed to find the sphere of his activity and 
improvement in the intermediate space between the Neces- 
sary and the Contingent, and unable to rest but in the felt 
junction of the two, shall derive perpetual accessions of 
enjoyment as he ascends from the Particular to the Infinite 
with whom it has originated, and in whom is it contained. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface v 

FIRST PART. 

Primary Truths 1 

SECOND PART. 

Principles deducible from the preceding Truths . . . 50 

THIRD PART. 

Inorganic Nature 68 

FOURTH PART. 
Organic Life 156 

FIFTH PART. 

Sentient Existence 220 

NOTES. 

I. On Genesis i. 1—3 347 

II. Illustrative of the Theory of Successive Creations 356 

Index 361 



* # * It may save the reader some trouble to be apprised, that the 
order in which the Principles are stated in the Second Part is not the 
order in which they are subsequently illustrated. The order in 
which they are illustrated in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Parts, is 
the same. 



ERRATA. 



Page. 


Line. 


Error. 


Correction. 


22 


... Note ... 


p. cii 


. c. ii. 


67 


... 27 ... 




. it comes. 


77 


... 11 ... 




. only one. 


117 


... Note 1 ... 


Macculloch's Proofs, v. i. c. 5 . 


. Whe well's B. T. 


126 


3 ... 




. with. 


137 


... 21 ... 




. origination. 


163 


... 31 ... 


" habitation" 


. " habitat." 


185 


4 ... 




. annuals. 


2] 5 


... 12 ... 




. lignine. 


252 


5 ... 




. prehension. 


289 


... 29 ... 


animal... to vegetative . . . 


. vegetable.. .to animal. 


305 


... 18 ... 




. medusae. 



FIRST PART. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Great Reason ; or, why God is, and must he His 
own end from everlasting to everlasting. 

God is not nature; nor is nature God. Before nature, 
before any part or being of the objective universe existed, 
the God of the Bible had existed from eternity in His own 
self-sufficience. ! And the absolute perfection which that 
self-sufficience implies, determines that it shall be, in some 
sense, the chief reason and last end of everything created; 
so that He will continue to inhabit His self-sufficience 
through the eternity to come. We believe, indeed, that, 
while He supremely regards His own glory, He really 
regards the well-being of the created universe for its own 
sake ; that this well-being is regarded by God as an end — 
in the sense of being an object desirable on its own account; 
and that He delights in it as such ; but that the ultimate, 
chief, and all comprehending end is His own glory. 

1. Had there ever been a period when nothing was, no- 
thing would still have been. Then the Creator of all things 
is himself uncreated, unoriginated, eternal. " He is from 
everlasting." Far back, in thought, and beyond the limits 
of time, as we may be able occasionally, and for a single 

B 



2 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



moment, to go, we are ever accompanied by the humbling 
conviction that we have made no approach whatever to the 
understanding of His eternity. The discoveries of science 
lead back our imagination to a period incalculably remote ; 
but even if each of the countless stars had been formed in 
succession, and if the time which elapsed between the 
formation of each had equalled that entire period, the mind 
which could span the whole — which could dart back a 
thought to the moment in which the first star beamed on 
the regions of space, would feel that it had only reached the 
starting point for the preceding eternity. For if then it 
should ask, "Where dwelt the Deity before that?" — the 
answer of the Oracle is, " He inhabited eternity and 
that star of which it had caught a glimpse, could only be 
regarded as the first lamp that was lighted up to guide the 
way back to His dread abode. 

2. Then must His mysterious existence be necessary and 
independent ; l for as there has never been anything, ad 
extra, to necessitate it, had it not been necessary of and 
from itself only, it could neither have been, nor have con- 
tinued to be. The great parent truth, therefore, which He 
may be regarded as silently repeating, through ^all the soli- 
tudes of space, and through every point of duration, is the 
sublime affirmation, " I AM — underived, self-existent, abso- 
lute Being ; in which sense there never has been, never will 
be, never can be, any Being besides." All other being can 
only be derived and dependent. 

3. In harmony with the dictates of enlightened reason, 
the Bible authenticates the deduction that the Being whose 
existence is eternal and independent, is also absolutely per- 
fect. The power of God must be omnipotence; His know- 
ledge, omniscience ; His holy benevolence, unlimited by any 

1 See Gillespie's Necessary Existence of God. 



THE GREAT REASON. 



3 



thing incompatible with perfection. No one kind of excel- 
lence can be unlimited unless it be associated with every 
other kind of excellence ; so that the possession of any one 
unlimited excellence implies the existence, and involves the 
necessity, of absolute perfection. 

4. But if the infinite nature of the Divine Being pre- 
cludes the existence of another independent and unlimited 
Being, the existence of a second would necessarily involve 
mutual limitation ; which would amount to a self-contra- 
diction. In every sense, therefore, consistent with perfec- 
tion. He has ever existed alone. Were He to break the 
silence of eternity He might demand, " Is there a God 
besides me? yea, there is none; I know not any. 1 I, who 
know all the possibilities of being, know not of such a 
being ; I, who at this moment am everywhere present 
throughout illimitable space, find such a being nowhere ; I, 
who have thus inhabited immensity from eternity, have 
never, in any point of past duration, beheld the least mani- 
festation of such a being ; I, who am unlimited Being, 
exclude, by that very necessity of my nature, the possibility 
of another unlimited being." 

5. But what finite mind can conceive the conditions 
included in Absolute Perfection ! To evolve these will re- 
quire eternity ; for could they be evolved in less they would 
not be unlimited. All that we can say, therefore, or shall 
ever be able to say, is, that whatever the amount of mystery 
included in the objective universe may ever be, the proba- 
bility is, that the proportion which it bears to the mystery 
of the Divine nature will be that of the limited to the 
unlimited; that if infinite perfection implies infinite mys- 
teriousness, which it certainly does, then infinite mysteri- 
ousness must ever form one of the distinctive excellences 

1 Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8. 

b2 



4 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



of that perfection ; that if the operation of infinite activity 
(either of love, or power, or of any other excellence) be 
essential to infinite perfection, and if such activity could 
not be agent and object at the same time, and in the same 
act, and yet no object, ad extra, existed from eternity, then 
must it have existed in the Divine nature itself ; in other 
words, the Divine nature must include a plurality of dis- 
tinctions, and include it as one of its necessary conditions, 
or essential perfections ; x that if no exercise of the Divine 
efficiency, ad extra, can ever be adequate to its infinite per- 
fection, and yet such adequate exercise, in some way, must 
always be necessary to infinite perfection, then must it be 
one of the excellences of the Divine nature, not only that 
it should include a plurality of distinctions, but that the 
adequate sphere of its infinite activity should be its own in- 
finite perfections; that if a God in unity, without internal 
distinctions, or diversity of modes, be incapable of moral 
affection, because having had nothing, ad extra, from 
eternity to love, then such internal distinctions must ever 
have existed as elements of reciprocal, social, self-sufficient 
perfection ; and that if such plurality be an excellence, and 
if unity be an excellence also ; and if there be any respect 
in which this plurality of one kind can consist as an excel- 
lence with this unity of another, then it will certainly be 
included in absolute perfection. And further, this perfec- 
tion implies not only that all the excellence which it includes 
is simple, uncompounded, one, but that God and it are 
identical : that it is not an adjunct of His being, but His 
being itself. 

1 See Howe's Calm Enquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity 
in the Godhead. Professor Kidd on the Trinity. Storr and Flatt, 
B. ii. § 46. § 44. 111. 8. Dr. J. P. Smith's Testimony of the Mes- 
siah, (Second Edition,) v. i. c. iv. § 35., v. iii. app. iv. 



THE GREAT REASON. 



5 



6. But for the same reason that His perfection of being 
and character is unlimited, it must ever have been unchange- 
able also. Besides which, it must be of the essence of 
Absolute Perfection that in everything belonging to that 
perfection, it can neither require nor admit of a change. 
Though an eternity has passed, the Deity is now what He 
ever was; " without the shadow of a turning." The past 
has stayed with Him, the future has ever been present to 
Him : the one could not diminish his perfection, nor the 
other augment it. " Who by searching can find out God !" 

7. Then the Deity has existed from eternity as His own 
end. By supposition, nothing as yet has been brought into 
existence. No ground therefore exists, no occasion has yet 
been given, for raising the great question as to who or what 
can be that end. No creative fiat has yet gone forth. Time 
has not counted its first revolution. In imagination, we are 
standing in the solitudes of the past eternity. Never has 
this stillness been broken. No ray of created light has 
ever penetrated this darkness. This infinite space has never 
owned a world. No seraph bows before His throne. If 
these solitudes shall ever be peopled with finite beings, the 
purpose is shut up in the mind of God. Boundless as His 
capacity for happiness must always have been, the conscious- 
ness of His own excellence, and the contemplation of His 
own perfections, have ever been sufficient to fill it. Un- 
limited and unceasing as must have been His activity, His 
own nature has been sufficient to exercise and contain the 
whole. Dateless in His duration, the postponement of 
creation for ten thousand thousand ages would not increase 
that duration, nor would it have been diminished had the 
fiat gone forth ten thousand thousand ages before it did. 
Unshared by anything, ab extra, as His eternity, and lonely, 
in the same sense, as His immensity must ever have been, 



6 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



His self-communion has been sufficient to occupy and 
replenish the whole with happiness. And inconceivably great 
as the end answered by this infinity and immensity of per- 
fection must have been, His own enjoyment and glory are 
amply commensurate to the whole. 

8. But if He has always been His own end, it follows 
that He must ever continue to be the same. For on the 
supposition of any other object becoming that end, then all 
that had gone before during the past eternity could only be 
regarded as its own end in a subordinate sense; while in 
reference to this other end since developed, it has been only 
the means. " That which exists merely as a cause, exists 
merely for the sake of something else — is not final in itself, 
but simply a means towards an end; and in the accom- 
plishment of that end, it consummates its own perfection." 
From which it would follow, that, during a whole eternity, 
Infinite Self sufficience stood in the subordinate relation of 
means to beings not yet in existence; that during that eter- 
nity Infinite Perfection was imperfect as the means without 
the end ; and that the addition of imperfect and dependent 
beings was necessary to give perfection to that imperfection. 

9. If to be His own end be an antecedent right, ante- 
cedent to creation by an eternity; and if after enjoying that 
right for an eternity, He choose to exercise another right 
— the right of creation — the exercise of this subsequent and 
inferior right cannot affect the primary eternal right. The 
display of Divine perfection can never impair the original 
prerogatives of that perfection. That He should lose His 
right, because of his perfection, is revolting to reason. 
Eender his prerogatives more evident it may, bat destroy 
them it cannot. For glorious as that display may be, and 
after it has been augmenting ten thousand ages, His abso- 
lute perfection will remain the same as it was before that 



THE GREAT REASON. 



7 



display began. That manifestation will not have increased 
it; for it will be only the objective existence of that which 
was His subjectively from eternity. Lofty as may be the 
natures, and countless as may be the myriads which will 
encircle His throne, He must ever continue to dwell as per- 
fectly alone, in a sense, through the eternity to come, as He 
did through the sublime and appalling solitude of the eter- 
nity past. On account of His incomparable greatness and 
excellence, never will He be able to bring himself within 
their comprehension. However exalted their natures and 
attainments may be, the universe will still exhibit the infi- 
nite distinction of the One unlimited being, and of orders 
of limited beings entirely dependent on Him. Eetired within 
the depths of his own immensity, they will never be able to 
approach and behold Him directly. For all they know 
of Him, they will ever feel that they are indebted to a 
medium of His own devising; and that, without that 
medium, the whole created universe, including themselves, 
would only have constituted a living altar with this inscrip- 
tion, " To the unknown God." 

10. Whatever excellence, natural or moral, the created 
universe may ever contain, was contained previously in the 
Divine nature. Surely his impartation of it cannot give 
away His right in it ! Eather, He will be laying the re- 
cipients under an obligation to love Him as its Giver, and 
to adore Him as its Source. However vast the amount of 
excellence may be, it will still be limited, so that they will 
have to remember at any given moment of their unending 
being, that they are still infinitely short of His excellence. 
However vast and various the displays of His glory may be, 
they will ever have to remember that the universe which 
displays it leaves more unevolved and undisplayed, by an 
infinite amount. However much they may be able to com- 



8 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



prehend of what He is, from what He has done since they 
came into being, they will ever have to remember that all the 
eternity of His past glory remains unexplored. And unless 
they could exhaust the mystery of the Divine perfections 
during every moment since they came into being, they 
will ever have to remember that the mystery is every 
moment augmenting in their hands; that time is adding 
its mystery to the mystery of the past eternity ; and that 
the mystery of both is to be carried forwards to the still 
greater account of the eternity to come. However various 
the orders of their intellect may be, here they will all find 
themselves on a level ; here they will all and ever find that 
to reflect is to be lost ; that the very choicest terms which 
they may employ to denote their knowledge of God, will 
be only so many tacit confessions of their ignorance, and 
escapes from difficulty; since to speak of Him as eter- 
nal, is only to say that His duration had not, like theirs, a 
beginning; and to speak of Him as infinite, that His nature 
is not, like theirs, bounded by limits. 

11. Nor will they ever cease to be entirely dependent on 
Him. Suppose the creation yet to commence, and we may 
ask, How can they be ever otherwise than dependent? 
During the eternity past, that question has never by possi- 
bility been raised; for He has existed, and, as to anything 
ad extra, still remains alone. By what possibility, then, 
can it ever be raised in the eternity to come ? The fact that 
God has been His own end in all the past determines the 
question for all the future. Whence could ever come the 
principle or the power which should invade, even in thought, 
this Divine prerogative, unquestioned and undisturbed as 
it has been from eternity? Surely not from any being of 
whom it is true that he has yet to be ; and as to whom the 
question whether he shall ever be or not, depends entirely 



THE GREAT REASON. 



9 



on the Divine pleasure ; and who, even if it be the Divine 
pleasure that he shall be, will be as entirely dependent on 
the same pleasure for every successive moment of being, as 
he was for the first moment ! The idea of such a being, or 
of any number of such beings, entering into, and taking 
possession of the place which for an eternity had been oc- 
cupied by God, as constituting his own end, is revolting to 
reason. The necessity of their own nature will forbid it. 
The only relation which that necessity will sustain to Him 
is that of dependence more profound, universal, and abso- 
lute, than they will ever be able to comprehend ; while the 
relation of His own nature to that end will always be, what 
it ever has been — that of self-sufficience. 

12. And as His infinite self-sufficience necessitated that 
He should be His own end during the eternity past, the un- 
changeableness of His nature secures the same result during 
the eternity to come. What He was, He is, and what He 
was and is, He ever will be. However many worlds or sys- 
tems He may create, they will never do more than display 
the nature of His perfection, they can never be the measure 
of its amount, much less limit that amount. Now, were 
He to make only a solitary being, that being could never 
think that God existed, and had existed from all eternity, 
for him — and why? because he would ever feel that God 
is infinitely above him. But no multiplication of mere 
finite beings will ever make an infinite being; and conse- 
quently can never affect the right of God to be the end of 
all things. On the contrary, the greater their multiplica- 
tion, the more evident His claim, because they would feel 
the more vividly that the difference between them, the 
limited, and Him, the unlimited, is still infinite ; and that 
after they shall have continued to advance through inter- 
minable ages from throne to throne, and shall have come 



10 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



nearer to Him at every such advance, the distance between 
Him and them is still infinite — that God is all in alL 

And thus we reach the conclusion, from the eternal self- 
sufficience of God, that He must ever be His own End ; or 
that His nature and glory form the Great Reason of the 
universe. For there was no reason why it should be, nor 
what it should be, but what existed in Himself. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Ultimate Purpose; or, the manifestation of the 
Divine all-sufficiency the last end of creation. 

The preceding Chapter showed that for the great reason 
of His eternal self-sufficience, God will ever be, what He 
always has been, His own end. But if He be thus abso- 
lutely self-sufficient and infinitely perfect, it follows that He 
is all-sufficient. By which we mean, generally, that, from 
eternity, He has included in himself all that is or ever will 
be necessary to impart (consistently with infinite perfection) 
existence and ever-advancing excellence, and happiness, to 
a created universe. And the object of the present Chapter 
is to show that the manifestation of this glory, by which we 
mean all-sufficiency, is the great purpose or ultimate end of 
creation. 

I. Such a manifestation appears to involve the following 
conditions : — 

1. That the manifestation be progressive. For surely a 
system which is always in progress both in its own develop- 



THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 



11 



ment, and in the powers of the beings to whom it is made 
known and who form a part of it, must, by the endless 
combinations which it involves, furnish an inconceivably 
severer test of Divine all-sufficiency, than one which should 
be in every respect stationary from the beginning. 

And this anticipates and answers the plausible but incon- 
siderate inquiry, " If the manifestation of the Divine all- 
sufficiency be infinitely desirable, would it not be equally 
desirable that the greatest possible extent should be given 
to the creation, and be given at once ; since, until that be 
done, how can it be known that God is all-sufficient?" In 
other words, an infinite cause should produce an infinite 
effect. 

We reply, that an exercise of the Divine perfections pro- 
perly infinite can only take place in the Divine nature itself ; 
and possibly involves the mystery of a plurality of distinc- 
tions in the unity of the Godhead, to and by which that 
display is mutually made : that were such an infinite mani- 
festation to be made, ad extra, unless the mind of the crea- 
ture were adequate to its comprehension — L e. were infinite 
— the manifestation to the creature would be limited, limited 
to the measure of his understanding : and that hence, for 
aught we know, the manifestation of God made in an atom, 
while to us it is extremely limited, to Him who sees the end 
from the beginning may be virtually and potentially infi- 
nite. So that, (if the hypothesis may be allowed,) were it 
possible to present such a particle to Him from the hand of 
another maker, He could say, " The being from whom this 
came is infinite, eternal, self-existent, and absolutely per- 
fect. His titles are here all written out at full length, and 
his perfections embodied. He is all-sufficient. This atom- 
point is the type and promise of an ever-enlarging and un- 
bounded universe. It contains potentially all that the ma- 



12 



THE PRE -ADAMITE EARTH. 



terial universe will ever exhibit actually. No additions to 
this atom- world could ever add to my knowledge of him. 
To me the manifestation is complete." We reply farther; 
the inquirer is evidently thinking of an all-sufficiency of 
power only, whereas we are speaking of an all-sufficiency of 
perfection, including wisdom, holiness, and benevolence, as 
well as power. As to the production of an unlimited effect, 
ad extra, the supposition of such a thing, as far as it can 
be understood, is an impossibility. For, first, it would 
involve the contradiction of two infinites — the infinite cause 
and the infinite effect ; in which case, the one must limit the 
other, so that neither would be unlimited ; or, secondly, it 
would imply the contradiction of an unlimited something 
brought within limits, the limits of time; and, thirdly, it 
would involve the absurdity of an independent dependence 
— of an effect not dependent on any cause — for if depend- 
ent, in that- respect, the most vital of all, it would be 
limited. 

2. But to say what would be necessary to the full mani- 
festation of all-sufficiency, is a task to which none but all- 
sufficiency itself can be competent ; since it supposes a ma- 
nifestation continued through eternity. Here, then, is 
another condition of the manifestation, that it be unending. 
For if it should terminate at any given point in futurity, 
the proof of all-sufficiency for an eternal manifestation would 
terminate with it ; and then the suspicion might be justly 
awakened, that if the manifestation had gone on, a crisis 
might have arrived for which the Deity might not have been 
sufficient. Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very 
nature, requires infinity and eternity in which to be deve- 
loped, for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than that. 
And it requires the same, from the very nature and consti- 
tution of those to whom the manifestation is to be made ; 



THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 



13 



for they are capable of interminable progression. To the 
objector then who should call for an unlimited effect in proof 
of Divine all-sufficiency, we would simply reply, that when 
he shall have existed for an unlimited duration, he may 
consistently expect to behold it. 

Considering the constitution of the beings to whom the 
manifestation is to be made, in connexion with the infinite 
perfection of the Being who is to make it, such a manifes- 
tation, then, would seem to require that it should be pro- 
gressive and unending; in order that they might be able 
to go along step by step with the great development ; to hang 
over the mighty process, and mark how the attainment of 
one end attains a number of inferior ones placed in a line 
with it ; how part is linked to part ; how the evolution of 
one part tends to the evolution of another part, contains 
the promise of it, leads to it, and predicts another and 
another yet; so that all-sufficiency is perpetually making 
fresh demands on itself, and illustrating itself by perpetually 
meeting those demands in a way demonstrative of all- suffi- 
ciency, constraining them to acknowledge that it has no 
limits. 

The remark, then, that the manifestation, not being ob- 
jectively completed at once, cannot be regarded as worthy 
of God, admits of the most satisfactory reply ; for, to allege 
no other reason, it is a manifestation for a purpose — 
to be understood; and its gradual development is that 
which especially adapts it to this end. The objection would 
hold only on the supposition that the manifestation was not 
made rapidly enough for the rapid mental and moral pro- 
gress of the beings for whom it was made — did not keep 
pace with their advancing powers of comprehension and ap- 
preciation. For if it does meet those demands, to them, in 
effect, it will be always unlimited and virtually infinite. Had 



14 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



such a thing been possible, then, that it could have been 
completed at once, man would not have known more of it 
ten thousand ages hence, than he will at the same distant 
point of time, now that it is progressive. While, at every 
stage of his knowledge, to him, in effect, the display will 
have been infinite and complete; for the limits of his com- 
prehension will be always unspeakably within the limits of 
the manifestation at its every stage. We have said that, 
in the case supposed, he would not have known more ten 
thousand ages hence than he will now by a progressive ma- 
nifestation. But we advance farther, and remark, that one 
of the reasons of this progressiveness is that, in the case sup- 
posed, he would not have known so much. Nor, as we 
shall hereafter show, would his knowledge have equally 
availed him, for it would not have been the knowledge of 
observation and experience. Experience supposes a process, 
and a process requires time, and implies advance from one 
stage to another. 

3. And a third condition of this manifestation appears 
to be that it be all-comprehending — including the revela- 
tion of everything essential to the Divine nature, and pro- 
vision for every crisis in the onward history of the creature, 
as well as the union and co-operation of all orders of being 
to the one great end. If there be distinctions as well as 
perfections in the Godhead, and if it would be for the glory 
of God to reveal them, sooner or later they must be dis- 
closed ; otherwise the manifestation would not be sufficient 
in this infinitely important particular. Again, if this all- 
sufficiency implies the power of meeting every crisis ; and 
should the creature ever come by some dreadful possibility 
to question the Divine all-sufficiency — which would be sin 
— the Deity, by the very fact of being able to meet that 
moral crisis, would be demonstrating the all-sufficiency 



THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 



15 



called in question. And still farther would this Divine 
perfection appear to be illustrated, if, in answering one end, 
it accomplished many, in sketching beforehand the great 
outlines of the Divine procedure ; and should there be dif- 
ferent orders of accountable beings, in including and uniting 
them together as voluntary and organic parts of the one 
great system. 

II. Here, however, it may be asked, whether this does 
not imply that, until this all- sufficiency be made manifest, 
there must be something wanting to the Divine glory which 
that manifestation is necessary to acquire for it ; and that as 
that all- sufficiency was not displayed for an eternity, there- 
fore something was eternally wanting to the completion of 
that glory? We reply, that the display of this all-suffi- 
ciency is no actual augmentation of G-od's essential glory, 
but only the objective manifestation of excellence which 
existed and acted subjectively from eternity; and that the 
fact that He should have existed from eternity without ma- 
nifesting it to the creature, arises solely from the infinite per- 
fection of His own nature which is uncommencing, and from 
the unavoidable imperfection of created natures which neces- 
sarily imply a beginning. His all-sufficience was necessary 
to the idea of his self-sufficience, and was included in it. 
The objection, then, can acquire force only by erroneously 
supposing that, having purposed to manifest His all-suffi- 
ciency, there was yet (as is often the case with human pur- 
poses) a doubt as to whether or not it would be carried 
into effect : but let it be remembered that we are speaking 
of all-sufficiency, and the objection turns into absurdity. 
Further, if the objection have any force with respect 
to the eternity past, it has the same still, and will have the 
same through all the eternity to come ; since the manifesta- 



16 



THE PKE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



tion of all-sufficiency can never, from the very nature of all- 
sufficiency, come to an end — and herein consists its perfec- 
tion. Moreover, there is not a particle of being or of ex- 
cellence in existence now more than existed potentially from 
eternity, since the whole objective universe is only the ma- 
nifestation of the Divine being and excellence. Great and 
real as is the satisfaction of the Deity in the existence and 
happiness of his creatures, the perfection of His nature for- 
bids that it should ever have had to begin. There can never 
have been a point in past duration in which His purpose has 
not made such existence and happiness certain, or in which 
His omniscience has not made it present to His mind as an 
object of ineffable delight. Besides which, however much 
of the Divine excellence be made objective, such manifesta- 
tion must always fall short of the reality to an infinite 
amount. And, then, the infinite desirableness of such a 
manifestation includes and supposes the infinite desirable- 
ness of all the conditions of the manifestation; so that any 
alteration would be not only infinitely undesirable, but 
would be so for this very reason, that it would not be a 
manifestation of Divine all-sufficience. 

III. From the preceding section, and from what has been 
advanced in the preceding chapter, it is evident that if a 
creation take place, it can be only by the voluntary act of 
the Godhead. To say that God creates by a natural and 
unavoidable necessity, is to deny His self-sufficience, and to 
make Him dependent for perfection on an external object ; 
whereas we have seen that He has existed from eternity in 
a state of infinite perfection. 

Hypotheses of fate and necessity have not been wanting, 
indeed, from the time of Anaximander downwards. Ac- 
cording to him, the infinite is necessarily an ever-producing 



THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 



17 



energy, and, as such, is in a constant state of incipiency. 
The necessary spiritualism of Leibnitz, and the necessary 
materialism of Spinoza, are alike hostile to the Divine free- 
will. Hegel and M. Cousin, have defended substantially the 
same tenet. According to the latter, " the distinguishing 
characteristic of the Deity being an absolute creative force, 
which cannot but pass into activity, it follows, not that the 
creation is possible, but that it is necessary." Now as the 
necessity here contended for, is not that moral necessity 
or determination which arises from the choice of an infi- 
nitely perfect Being, but a physical or natural necessity, it 
has been ably answered that " to what extent a thing exists 
necessarily as a cause, to that extent it is not all-sufficient 
to itself ; for to that extent it is dependent on the effect, as 
on the condition through which alone it realizes its exist- 
ence; and what exists absolutely as a cause, exists, there- 
fore, in absolute dependence on the effect for the reality of 
its existence. An absolute cause, in truth, only exists in its 
effects : it never is, it always becomes. ,n 

The God of the Bible, on the contrary, is subject neither 
to the necessity of acting, ad extra, nor to the necessity of 
not acting. The universe has been created for his " plea- 
sure;" not from a necessity which He could not physically 
resist. And whatever takes place in it of a beneficial 
nature, takes place u according to the purpose of Him who 
worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will." 
The only necessity, therefore, which can be regarded as 
obliging Him in respect to a creation, is the moral necessity, 
that having freely determined to create, He should propose 
an adequate end, and employ the appropriate means for its 
attainment. 

1 From a searching and masterly review of Cousin's Cours de Phi- 
losophies in the Edin. Rev., vol. 1. p. 213. 

C 



18 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



IV. Accordingly, if the Deity create, it seems infinitely 
desirable that the chief and ultimate design of the creation 
should be the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency — 
by which the Divine glory should appear equal to all things, 
even for the greatest — that of being its own end. 

1. For, first, in the very nature of things, all the being, 
excellence, and happiness, which can ever exist, ad extra, and 
by which alone the Divine manifestation can be made, vir- 
tually existed from eternity, ad intra. 1 It is only in this way 
that they can manifest Him ; and it is only so long, there- 
fore, as they remain what they are — the means of the mani- 
festation of Himself — that they answer their end ; and the 
more of them there is in the creature, the more do they 
answer that end. All the relations which may ever bind 
created beings together ; the laws which may prescribe the 
duties of these relations ; the excellence which, by obedience 
to these laws, they may ever possess or be able to acquire; 
and the happiness which, as the result of this excellence, 
they may ever enjoy — all potentially existed from eternity 
in the character and mind of God, and existed there as the 
expression of His mind and character. His nature is the 
fountain of the whole. So that every authoritative announce- 
ment which He may make that such and such is His will, 
must be founded in the fact that such and such is His 
nature. From the all-comprehending perfection of the 
Divine nature, then, the manifestation of Divine all-suffi- 
ciency must have been the chief and ultimate design of 
creation. 

2. But, secondly, as God does nothing which He does not 
purpose, and as the manifestation of a cause is necessarily 

1 Admirable remarks on this subject may be found in Howe's 
Living Temple, part i. c. iv., and part ii. c. ii. ; and in Hooker's 
Eccles. Pol., b. v. 



THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE^ 19 

the first end answered by an effect, so the purpose of making 
this manifestation must have been, in its own right, the first 
purpose in the mind of God. To speak, indeed, as if the 
purposes of God observed an order of succession in the 
Divine mind, is a metaphysical inconsistency; but it is one 
which arises from that necessary constitution of our nature 
by which we can conceive of but one subject at a time; and 
by which we conceive that that which is the first in the order 
of importance should be, with a perfect Being, the first in 
the order of intention. On this account we conclude that 
the Divine purpose relative to the design or end of creation 
must have been the first in the mind of God, since every 
other purpose could only relate to the means for the accom- 
plishment of that end. What we call the various purposes 
of God, indeed, are, properly speaking, only parts of the 
same all-comprehending purpose ; so that what we denomi- 
nate His first purpose, included the reason of all His other 
purposes, and determined the order of their successive 
development. 

When we say, therefore, that every other purpose could 
only relate to the means, we do not intend that God had 
only one end in view absolutely, or in every sense. 1 It 
seems to be necessary, in order to satisfy our idea of all- 
sufficiency, that, in accomplishing one end, it should be 
answering many. For instance, that the very creation of 
the beings to whom the manifestation should be made, 
should involve in itself a grand part of the manifestation ; 
that even the globe prepared to receive them, and to be the 
theatre of the manifestation, should contain in itself some 
of the elements of that manifestation ; that the well-being 
of the creature should furnish the chief occasion for display- 

1 See President Edwards's Treatise on God's chief End in Crea- 
tion. — Introductory Paragraphs. 

c 2 



20 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



ing that all-sufficiency ; and that the very questioning of 
that all-sufficiency, and the first obstruction offered to it, 
should bring with it the very occasion wanted to evolve and 
demonstrate that all-sufficiency, and to augment the happi- 
ness of the creature : so that the well-being of the creature 
should be as secure of attainment as if it were the chief and 
only end aimed at, since it is coincident with that end ; — all 
these are designs worthy of Divine all-sufficiency. Although, 
then, in relation to the chief end, every other end is subor- 
dinate and a means, viewed apart from that chief end, many 
of the means themselves become important ends; and it 
seems, we repeat, worthy of Divine all sufficiency that in an- 
swering its own great end, it should be accomplishing many 
subordinate ones. 

3. And, thirdly, the well-being of the creature required 
that the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency should 
be the ultimate design of God in creation. Next in impor- 
tance to this design, is that well-being itself. And hence, 
some would inconsiderately regard that as the ultimate end 
of creation. But if, as we have seen, the manifestation of 
the Divine all-sufficiency must be, in its own right, the chief 
end of creation, the very well-being of the creature required 
that no other end, not even his own well-being, should be 
that end. For if the creature be himself a part of that mani- 
festation, he is, in so far, a means to that end. His excellence 
consists in that resemblance to God by which he is consti- 
tuted a part of that manifestation ; and if he be an intelli- 
gent being, his happiness consists in his perceiving that 
resemblance, and in being conscious that he is answering 
that end of his existence. The character of his every act 
depends on its correspondence with that end. The value of 
every being is to be estimated by its capabilities for answer- 
ing that end. And the truth of every system or theory, is 



THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 



21 



to be tested by the fact whether or not it contemplates that 
end, and attaches to it the same importance which God does. 
For if that end be infinitely greater than all the subordinate 
ones taken together ; then that theory of things which takes 
no note of that end, or which assigns it only an inferior 
place, must be faulty to a much greater degree than any 
arithmetical calculation which professes to give the sum- 
total of a number of figures, but which casts up only the 
fractions and omits the integers. 

A holy intelligence, therefore, could not be happy under 
an arrangement which should make his own happiness the 
chief end of creation, unless he were quite ignorant of the 
infinite perfection of God. But however happy he might be 
in that ignorance, it would be only necessary to disclose to 
him a sight of that perfection in order to render him un- 
happy ; for he would clearly see that he could be his own 
end only at the expense of right, and that would render him, 
as a righteous being, miserable. His own happiness, then, 
would require that he should be subordinated to the higher 
end — the manifestation of the Divine glory ; for he would 
see that his well-being consisted in it — that he was made 
for it. So that could the great question be referred to the 
arbitration of the holy universe, with one voice they would 
instantly exclaim, " Thou art worthy, Lord, to receive 
glory, and honour, and power; for Thou hast created all 
things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. 
For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things ; 
to Him be glory for ever, Amen." Thus the verdict of the 
intelligent universe coincides with the primary purpose of 
the Infinite Mind — that the manifestation of the Divine all- 
sufficiency is the ultimate end of creation. The work is 
dedicated to Himself: " All His works praise Him." 

And thus, from the Eternal Self-sufficience, we reach the 



22 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



grand conclusion that God must be His own end, or that 
His infinitely -perfect nature is the great reason of the uni- 
verse ; and, from a consideration of His all-sufficiency, that 
His glory, in creation, consists in the manifestation of His 
all-sufficiency, and that His display of this is His primary 
and all-comprehending design. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Fundamental Relation ; or, the manifestation of the 
Divine all- sufficiency, mediatorial. 

God having determined on the display of His all-suffici- 
ency as the end of creation, the next part of His purpose 
related to the constitution of a medium, or system of media- 
tion, as the only condition on which and through which 
the manifestation was to be made. 

Let it be observed, that we do , not here restrict the mean- 
ing of the term mediation to the principal or evangelical 
sense. We now employ the term as equivalent to medial, 
or that which intervenes between the purpose of God and 
its accomplishment, as the means of that accomplishment. 
While we regard the Atonement, therefore, as the great dis- 
tinctive act of moral mediation, and as that to which all 
preceding acts of creation and providence were only intro- 
ductory, we now employ the term in reference to these pre- 
paratory acts as well as to that great act of moral media- 
tion. 

I. And we find, first, that the constitution of the universe 



THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 



23 



is mediatorial. The creation is represented in Scripture as 
owing its actual existence and well-being from first to last, 
not to the invisible and absolute God directly, but indirectly, 
on account of the assumed relation and voluntary agency of 
one who stands medially or mediatorially between Him and 
the dependent universe. " He created all things by Jesus 

Christ according to the eternal purpose which He 

purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." " By Him (the 
Mediator) were all things created that are in heaven and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers ; all 
things were created by Him and for Him ; and He is before 
all things, and by Him all things consist." 

II. Accordingly, we find, in the second place, that the 
institution of the medial, or mediatorial relation, preceded 
the first act of creation, and was the medium of it. For, 
" in the beginning was the Word, (or Logos,) and the Logos 
was with God, and the Logos was God. This (Logos) was 
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, 
and without Him was not anything made that has been 
made." In verification of our second proposition we remark 
that it is here stated, 

1 . That the Logos is in some sense distinct from o Qeog, 
for He was with o Qeog. Besides which, His personal sub- 
sistence is manifest from the attributes of intelligence and 
active power which are here ascribed to Him. 

2. That He sustained a relation of peculiar intimacy and 
union with o 9foc,for He was npog tov Oaov ; upog, equivalent 
here to napa, governing the dative, and denoting rest in a 
place or an object. But we are by no means dependent on 
a single proof. Passages to the same effect are so nume- 
rous as to require selection. Such, for instance, is the lan- 



24 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



guage — " the glory which I had, irapa <joi, with Thee, before 
the world was." And the compound term /novoyevrjg — the 
only-begotten Son — which occurs four times; and "the 
only -begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father; 7 
denoting a relation absolutely unique and exclusive, and a 
state of the most perfect conjunction of knowledge, happi- 
ness, and nature. 1 

3. That He was Himself God, for Osog r\v o \6yog. The 
connexion of this clear affirmation with the preceding clause 
may be expressed thus — " The Word was with God, in such 
a manner, that, in fact, the Word was God." Other proofs 
to the same effect might be easily adduced. 

4. That of everything brought into existence, He, in 
distinction from o Bsoe, was the actual Maker. " All things 
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything 
made that was made." The affirmation is here followed by 
the negation, after the Hebrew manner, in order the more 
emphatically to declare that every created thing originated 
with Him ; and, to create, is the scriptural demonstration 
of Deity. 

5. And therefore that the relation or office in virtue of 
which He created all things preceded the first act of crea- 
tion. For w ap^y — in the beginning — equivalent to the 
Hebrew JTitfNnn — even then He already fa — was. The 
assertion of His pre-existence is included alike in ap^y and 
in riv. For when every created thing had yet to be, He 
already was. He comprehends every beginning in Him- 
self. 2 As passages, parallel, in this particular, we might 

1 Authorities corroborative of these views might be cited to almost 
any extent; and some of them by no means unfriendly to Neologist 
doctrines. 

2 Qui in principio erat, intra se concludit omne principium. — Aug. 
Serm.yi. — de Temp. 



THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 



25 



refer to Prov. viii. 23, where to be " from the beginning " 
is made equivalent with being " from everlasting, or ever 
the earth was," and to Isaiah xliii. 12, 13, and Hab. i. 12, 
where to be from the beginning is regarded as the peculiar 
prerogative of the eternal and self-existent God. And yet, 
this ante-beginning, or unbeginning existence is here pre- 
dicated of the Logos, not once only; in the second verse it 
is repeated — " this (Word) was in the beginning with God." 
As if He had said, " This is a truth of the first importance, 
and I therefore repeat it, that when creation had yet to be- 
gin to be, the Divine Logos existed in a state of perfect 
union with the Divine Nature." 1 For, u He is before all 
things, and by Him all things consist." Thus Inspiration, 
leading us back to the beginning of all created things, 
points us to the existence of that medial relation which 
preceded creation, and was the means of its actual 
origin. 

III. And, thirdly, as the primary purpose of God is the 
manifestation of Divine all-sufficiency, this primary official 
relation is represented as in coincidence with, and subser- 
vience to, that purpose. This is indicated by the very 
meaning of the appellation Logos, whether examined philo- 
logically, historically, or exegetically. 

1. It might be asked, " May not o \6yog stand philologi- 
cally, as abstract for concrete, for o Xsyw — the speaker or 
teacher?" To which we reply that Xejziv does not signify 
directly to teach ; and \6yog has only in an indirect manner 
the meaning of doctrine. Much more proper would it be 
to understand Xoyoc according to the phraseology of Philo, 
who distinguishes in God the state of elvai — being, and that 

1 Dr. J. P. Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, v. iii. 
p. cii. b. iv. 



26 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



of \EyeaOai — revealing Himself. According to which the 
Logos would be the Divine Kevealer. 1 

2. But that which is much more important to determine, 
here, than its grammatical, is its historical sense. For the 
Evangelist speaks of the Logos as of a conception already 
known, and which he takes for granted his readers will im- 
mediately connect with the word. 2 Now, it is matter of 
history that by the Logos was then understood, He who is 
the medium of Divine manifestation. The idea of such a 
medium appears to have early obtained among the students 
of the Hebrew Scriptures ; and from them to have extended 
to other lands, till in one form or another, the idea had be- 
come very generally incorporated with Oriental theology. 
Traces of it are to be found scattered, with more or less 
distinctness, in the Apocrypha, in Philo, in the Cabalistic 
Writings, and in the Chaldee Paraphrasts. In the last of 
these especially it is taught that God never appears acting 
immediately upon the world, but always through the medium 
of another. This medium of the Divine acts is called the 
Memra of Jah — the Word of Jehovah. And although the 
phrase is sometimes employed idiomatically, to signify 
merely the Divine Voice, at others, it can denote nothing 
less than a distinct personal subsistence. While in Philo the 
doctrine is taught that the Deity has developed His essence 
through His highest Revealer, the Logos, who is the express 
image of God — the name and the shadow of God — a repre- 
sentative God. 

The Evangelist, aware of this familiar doctrine of Jewish 
theology, declares that the true Logos — He who in the 
capacity of Logos had made the world as a part of the 

1 So Professor Tholuck, in loc. 

2 See Professor Burton's Bampton Lecture. 



THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 



27 



Divine manifestation, has really and historically appeared 
with a view to a yet farther manifestation. 

3. To have selected so unusual a word as Logos in order 
to express so simple an idea as that of a teacher only, would 
have been, eocegetically considered, most inappropriate. Be- 
sides, the idea conveyed is, that the Being intended had, in 
His capacity of Logos, or, of the Divine Eevealer, created 
the universe ; and that He who had done this had now Him- 
self appeared to carry on the process of Divine manifesta- 
tion. Thus understood — and we know no other sense in 
which we can understand it — how admirably descriptive is 
the appellation, the Logos, of Him who is the medium of 
the Divine manifestation. What speech is as a means of 
rational communication between one mind and another, that 
is the Divine Logos between the Invisible Essence and all 
created minds. He is the utterer of His thoughts, the dis- 
closer of His purposes, the manifestation of His character. 

Now the Being who sustains this relation must in every 
respect be co-equal with God. To be in any sense inferior 
would be to be infinitely inferior ; in which case, the mani- 
festation itself would be limited to the capacity of the me- 
dium through which it came, and, consequently, be infi- 
nitely inferior to the Divine original. Accordingly, we 
have seen, that the Divine Logos is, in perfections, as in 
name, co- equal with the Father; he has been with Him, 
and has so been with Him as to be one with Him, from 
eternity. To the same effect are those passages of Holy 
Scripture which describe Him as the Image of the Invisible 
God ; as the Brightness of the Father's Glory, and the Ex- 
press Representation of His Essence. For as the internal 
being and character of a man are expressed in his face, so 
God hath given us the knowledge of His glory in the face 



28 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



of Jesus Christ. The doctrine which gives to these and 
parallel phrases all their force is, that He to whom they re- 
late is the great medium of Divine manifestation. 

And this prepares us to expect that the manifestation 
will not be verbal merely. For how can the imperfect me- 
dium of speech convey an adequate idea of the invisible 
God ? Besides, the intelligent creatures to whom the mani- 
festation is to be made, had first to be created, and the 
world they should inhabit to be called into existence ; and, as 
He performed these works in His medial capacity, it might 
be expected that He would begin the manifestation even in 
these. This is the right key to the volume of the universe. 
Properly understood, every material particle is impressed 
with His seal. Every atom is a letter, and every work a 
word. Every element lectures on his attributes, and each 
globe is a messenger ever moving in His service. Man him- 
self was made in His image. The stars come forth nightly 
on their solemn embassy to u proclaim the glory of God." 
And the earth daily affirms with voices innumerable the 
" eternal power and Godhead." In harmony with this re- 
presentation, the Divine Logos is represented as having 
come into the world not so much to promote the Divine ma- 
nifestation by verbal instruction, as by embodying and ma- 
nifesting Himself in actions. He came to be the manifest- 
ation of God. " He that hath seen Me," said He, u hath 
seen the Father also." He claimed for Himself the exclu- 
sive power of revealing the Father; and affirmed that to 
make this revelation was the great end of His own coming. 
And, when about to depart from the world, He was heard to 
say to the Father, " Having declared unto them Thy name, 
and having thus glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished 
the work which Thou gavest me to do." While His disciples 
subsequently declared, that the Life had been manifested, 



THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 



29 



and that they had seen it ; that that which was from the 
beginning they had handled and seen, even the Word of Life ; 
that though no man had seen God at any time, the only- 
begotten Son had come from the bosom of the Father to de- 
clare Him, and that they had beheld His glory. 

And thus, be it observed, the very means of external 
manifestation became itself the manifestation of a myste- 
rious plurality of subsistencies in the Godhead. In the 
very first step taken to give the universe an economy ad 
extra, a mysterious economy ad intra was disclosed ; and 
which became the ground and means of every subsequent 
disclosure. 

Here, then, are the basis and medium of the Divine 
Manifestation; for, in relation to God, as we shall pre- 
sently evince more clearly, it is constituted the ground on 
which such manifestation is made ; and is itself, perhaps, to 
His eye, the manifestation already and ever perfect. While 
in respect to the subsequent creation, it is the means by 
which the process will be ever conducted. Thus, while the 
reason of this Eelation is laid, proximately, at least, in 
the Divine purpose, and the reason of the Divine Purpose 
lies in the Divine Nature, the reason of everything else 
will be found to be laid in this Eelation. 



CHAPTEE IY. 

The Primary Obligation ; or, duty arising from the 
Mediatorial Relation. 

If the manifestation of the Divine all- sufficiency be the 
object for which the mediatorial relation exists, and if the 
Being sustaining the relation be infinitely perfect, or equal 



30 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



to the relation, it follows that by voluntarily assuming 
it, He comes under obligation to do everything which 
may be- necessary for the full attainment of the object 
proposed. 

I. For what is obligation but the necessary link which 
connects the antecedent with its consequent ; or, the indis- 
pensable necessity of employing the means proper to attain 
a requisite end ? Now every relation brings with it certain 
appropriate obligations ; and these obligations vary in cha- 
racter and amount according to the character of the rela- 
tions. A relation may be voluntary, or involuntary and 
natural. If it be voluntary, He who assumes it is bound 
to fulfil the obligations which it imposes; always providing 
that he either knew, or had the means of knowing, the 
nature of the relation ; and that he is not physically unable 
to discharge its duties, and thus answer its end. 

II. Now He who sustains the mediatorial relation, not 
only possesses, as we have seen, all the requisites for accom- 
plishing the great purpose, but His fitness is the special 
reason why He sustains that relation ; the relation therefore 
binds or obliges Him to do everything necessary to the 
attainment of the end for which it exists. That end may 
be immeasurably distant, but let the first creative fiat be 
once issued, and never can His eye be withdrawn from the 
process which leads to it. Vast as the theatre may be which 
that process may, in the course of time, come to occupy, 
His presence must, in some sense, pervade the entire space. 
Innumerable as the parts belonging to the process may 
speedily come to be, and receiving as they may innumerable 
accessions at every moment after, all of them must be known 
to Him in their natures, relations, and remotest effects. 



THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 



31 



Various, and formidable to finite apprehension, as may be 
the apparent obstacles to the attainment of the end, arising 
from the ever-varying combinations of circumstances ; from 
the junctures of events which had their respective causes in 
different ages of creation, and in different departments of 
the universe; and, especially, from the voluntary actions 
of free agents ; not merely must He be prepared to meet 
them all, but (as an illustration of all-sufficiency) to render 
them all conducive, as parts of His plan, to the attainment 
of His ultimate end. Ever receding, and even unattain- 
able (in an absolute sense) as that end, owing to its perfec- 
tion, must necessarily be, yet as long as there are aspects of 
the Divine character to be manifested, new creatures must 
continue to be formed for the purpose of displaying and ap- 
preciating them; or, which would seem to be better still, 
those already formed must be placed by Him in new situa- 
tions for beholding it in fresh aspects, and have their 
powers enlarged for appreciating such enlarged disclosures ; 
or — that which would seem to be still more worthy of all- 
sufficiency — both these conditions might be made to meet 
in the same order of creatures ; that is, besides taking up 
into their constitution all that is most important in the con- 
stitution of the creatures preceding them, they may be made 
to exhibit something more excellent of their own in addi- 
tion, and be placed in circumstances favourable to the ever- 
advancing exercise and development of the whole. And 
thus the glories which creation may display at any period 
indefinitely distant from the first moment of the opening 
manifestation, and the power which the creature may at 
such period possess for appreciating it, will only be the 
means, in the hand of the Mediator, for entering on a new 
career of Divine manifestation as immeasurably distant, and 
incomparably more glorious still ; and the attainment of 



32 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



that be only the bare preparation for another beyond, so 
much more glorious than the preceding that the eye which 
had gazed on all the splendours of the past, and the ear 
which had heard all the speculations and conjectures to 
which that past had given rise, and the heart which had 
been occupied ten thousand ages in putting all these toge- 
ther into every imaginable form of ideal glory, will yet have 
to confess that it had never seen, or heard, or even ima- 
gined, anything to be compared with it — and so on ad infi- 
nitum. So that as the manifestation will never have reached 
a point beyond which it cannot be carried farther still, the 
mediatorial office can never, absolutely, and in every sense, 
cease; in other words, the relation which the Mediator sus- 
tains in the great purpose of manifestation binds or obliges 
Him to do everything which may be necessary to the full 
attainment of the great end — and therefore to continue the 
manifestation for ever. 

This view of the mediatorial obligation harmonizes with, 
and is suggested by, that numerous and important class of 
Scriptures which appears to take such obligation for granted ; 
and which represents even the self-denial and sufferings of 
the Mediator, as events which " behoved him " — and which 
" ought " to take place. The proximate obligation implied 
in these Scriptures, indeed, may be that which bound Him 
to the employment of suitable means for the attainment of 
a particular end. That particular end was the recovery of 
a race which by voluntarily obstructing the great process 
of manifestation, and by thus forfeiting all right to the hap- 
piness attending it, could be restored to it again only when 
such restoration could be made as safe to the great process, 
and as conducive to the great end, as their abandonment to 
the consequences of their sinful defection would be. And 
the Mediator, having undertaken to effect that restoration, 



THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 



33 



had brought himself under obligation to do all that was 
necessary to render this particular end consistent with the 
attainment of the great end. The event showed that suf- 
fering and death were the necessary means — and therefore 
even suffering and death " became Him/' and He " ought " 
to endure them. 

But this view accounts only for the proximate obligation. 
It leaves unanswered the natural and momentous inquiry 
why such an obligation was incurred? Whereas, the right 
answer, I apprehend, would show that this proximate obli- 
gation, great and wonderful as it is, resolves itself into one 
higher and more comprehensive still ; and that to this the 
class of Scriptures referred to ultimately relates — namely, 
the all-comprehending obligation to which His mediatorial 
relation binds Him, of doing everything essential to the great 
end. In virtue of that relation, He was bound from the 
beginning, not only to keep the great process in constant 
activity, but to keep it ever advancing and enlarging ; and 
this, as we have seen, involved the requirement that He 
should meet every exigency which might arise, and even 
turn it to the account of the final result. His earthly humi- 
liation, indeed, is, probably, on many accounts, the central 
wonder and most amazing part of that duty to which His 
mediatorial relation can ever oblige Him ; but still it is only 
one of an unbroken series of acts, which, beginning with the 
first fiat of creation, can never end, unless the great mani- 
festation itself, on account of which the relation exists, could 
ever arrive at completion. 

III. This view seems to place us in an advantageous 
position for gaining an insight into the very reason of the 
medial relation — disclosing, not merely what it is, but 
partially, at least, why it is so. That this subject should 

D 



34 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



be felt to be profound might have been expected, if for no 
other reason than that it appears to involve, in some de- 
gree, the very nexus which unites the internal economy of 
the Divine nature with the external economy of the de- 
pendent universe. Even in the philosophy of our own 
minds, the mode in which the thinking principle within is 
related to the world without — how that which is I, can 
come to know that which is not I, is the great, and, com- 
paratively, the only difficulty. So that every theory on 
the mind derives its character from the view which is taken 
of this starting-point : — one denying that there is any sub- 
jective; another, that there is any objective; another affirm- 
ing that they are identical ; and a fourth, that they are not 
identical but inexplicably related. Precisely in like manner, 
some have denied that there is any Originating Mind, and 
regard the universe as eternal ; others have affirmed that 
there is no material universe, but that God alone exists; 
others, that God and nature are identical; and others, 
that they exist distinctly, but are inexplicably related. 
Now Divine revelation discloses the vital fact that they 
are related, and that the relation is, properly understood, 
not direct but medial. 

1. But what is the reason of the fact? Is it a natural 
reason merely ; one, that is, arising from the disparity of 
nature between the created and the infinite Invisible? 
Such was the theory of many of the emanative systems of 
the East ; indirectly derived, but perverted, from the Hebrew 
Scriptures. They taught that as the Highest Being is, in 
himself, incomprehensible and unapproachable, there can 
be no immediate transit from Him to a world of created 
existences; that, consequently, it became necessary that 
there should be found in God some transition-point to make 
His fulness comprehensible and communicable; and that 



THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 



35 



this was found in Himself from eternity in a Being like 
Himself, through whom the concealed God was manifested. 
And this opinion, slightly modified, and reproduced in some 
of the early Christian creeds, has continued to exercise a 
powerful influence on the theology of this subject down to 
the present day. That it involves some truth we readily 
admit ; but, if it is to be regarded as the whole truth, the 
reply to it is obvious — namely, that if the supposed medium 
be infinite, the natural chasm intended to be filled up be- 
tween God and the creature remains, for one infinite is as 
unapproachable as another ; and that if it be not infinite, 
it no less remains, for a finite medium necessarily leaves 
the gulf as it was — infinite. 

2. Is the reason, then, a moral one; and, if so, what is 
its specific nature? The general reply would doubtless be 
in the affirmative, and to this effect — that the constitution 
of a universe worthy of an Infinitely Perfect Being involved 
the existence of free agents, and therefore of a moral ad- 
ministration ; that under such an administration righteously 
administered, forgiveness, in the event of sin, would be im- 
possible, unless such a compensation should be provided as 
would render forgiveness as safe and honourable to the 
administration as the infliction of the merited punishment 
would be ; and that God, therefore, foreseeing such an event, 
and determined on the illustration of His infinite grace, 
devised a system of mediation, at once safe for His govern- 
ment, suited to the exigency of the sinner, and glorious for 
His own character. Now, not only is this true — it is ines- 
timable truth. To a sinful world it is Gospel. But to 
regard this as the whole of the reason, would be to limit 
the reason to a single act or class of actions; whereas, if 
our preceding views are correct, that reason is to be found 
in the purpose of Divine manifestation, just as the ground 

D 2 



36 



THE PRE-APAMITE EARTH. 



of that is to be found in the great Eeason of all — the Divine 
Nature. 

3. For the sake of distinguishing the original ground of 
the mediatorial relation, then, from that just named, and 
yet avoiding the employment of a term liable to misinter- 
pretation, we would designate it simply as the primary 
moral reason, in contradistinction from the last, which we 
regard as the proximate moral reason ; and this primary 
reason we conceive to be, because nothing else than the in- 
stitution and voluntary assumption of the subordinate 
office, understood by the mediatorial relation, woidd have 
adequately manifested the infinite Holiness and Love of 
God, or His all-sufficiency for the toell-being of an intelli- 
gent and account< i l>le universe. 

That other reasons for this amazing arrangement are de- 
ducible from Scripture, is gladly admitted. There is that 
great proximate reason, to which we have just adverted. 
There is also the reason, that we might not be discouraged, 
by a sense of God's ineffable majesty, from approaching 
Him. And there is the weighty reason of the moral in- 
fluence arising from the Mediator's example of willing 
subordination to the Father. That He should be seen 
standing in the view of the universe — seen by His own 
creatures — in a station of obedience ! Who else can refuse 
to obey ? That He, of His own free-will, should consent to 
serve! — what creature-will but must feel constrained to 
yield? That He should find glory in this subordination! — 
does it not point the intelligent universe the only way to 
perfection — namely, by its coincidence with the Divine 
will? 

But these reasons, and others which might be named, 
are all included in that which I have designated as the 
primary moral reason. And I venture to repeat, that, not 



THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 



37 



only is the manifestation of the Divine all- sufficiency that 
primary reason, but that nothing else than the mediatorial 
relation can be conceived of as furnishing an adequate ma- 
nifestation of that all-sufficiency. That the Divine Being 
might have abstained, had He so pleased, from all external 
manifestation, I believe to be a doctrine of Scripture; but 
I believe also that, having determined on the manifestation, 
nothing less than the voluntary subordination of one of the 
persons in the Godhead could adequately express the re- 
sources of all-sufficiency. Had the sufficiency of God been 
limited; or had He designed that the manifestation should 
have been of any amount of His excellence short of all- 
sufficiency — i. <?., had He himself been imperfect, or had He 
determined on an imperfect manifestation — an arrangement 
inferior to that of the system of mediation might have suf- 
ficed; but if God all-sufficient is to be revealed, this would 
appear to be the adequate and only exponent. And still 
farther, so effectually does the mediatorial arrangement 
provide for the purposed manifestation, that the mere wil- 
lingness of the Mediator to sustain the relation, apart from 
all that He has done in consequence, and, hypothetically 
speaking, even short of His actually sustaining it at all — 
His mere willingness to sustain it, could that have been 
signified to the universe, would have given us a deeper in- 
sight into the character of God, and have furnished a 
brighter illustration of His all-sufficiency, than it could ever 
have entered into the mind of man or angel to conceive. 
The wonder is, then, not so much that He should fulfil every 
condition to which His mediatorial relation obliges Him, as 
that He should be found sustaining the relation at all from 
which that obligation takes its rise. To say that He fore- 
saw Jhese conditions, is only saying that He is equal to the 
relation which He sustains. And to say that He yet volun- 



38 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



tarily undertook that office, is only saying that He who is 
at the head of a system of free agency is Himself a free 
agent. But that He should have done this, I repeat, that 
He who had known no necessity but that of being, and of 
being what He was, should have brought Himself under 
obligation; that He who had known no relation but that of 
the ineffable union of the Godhead, should oblige Himself 
to sustain a relation to a created universe — to become the 
centre of an ever-enlarging system of such relations ; and to 
do everything necessary to the well-being of such relations ; 
that the cause of all things, ad extra, should have voluntarily 
assumed that office as an effect of a previous purpose; that 
" the Beginning of Creation " should range Himself in 
a line with His own creatures — subjecting Himself to His 
own laws — as the first term in a series of means, for the 
accomplishment of the end which that purpose contem- 
plated ; — this can be accounted for only by supposing that 
the end is the illustration of the Divine all-sufficiency. 

Nor is this final reason unfrequently or obscurely adverted 
to in the word of God. To this effect, ultimately, are 
those passages to which reference has been made already. 
So also is the inspired declaration, that in the most self- 
denying acts of the Mediator, the eternal Father was allow- 
ing or appointing that which " became Him;" but, then, the 
capacity or relation in which it became Him is distinctly 
stated, as " Him, by whom are all things, and for whom 
are all things," — as Him who is His own end, and the end 
of everything else, even of the system of mediation, with all 
that it includes. And to this view the Mediator Himself 
sets His seal in all those passages, cited in the last chapter, 
in which He declares, that whatever He said, did, or 
suffered, the whole was for the disclosure of the Divine 
glory. 



THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 



39 



(1.) Then, it is to be inferred, that the character of the 
Father is perfectly free from that unlovely and invidious 
light which some views of mediation are charged with un- 
justly casting on it. The object of the Father in appoint- 
ing, and of the Son in voluntarily assuming the relation, 
is one — the fulfilment of the great purpose. So that the 
arrangement is required by a principle rather than by a 
person; is rendered, on the one hand, for the very same 
reason that it is required on the other — namely, that the 
full manifestation of the Divine glory to the universe might 
be made possible. 

(2.) That as the appointment of such an arrangement 
argues no deficiency of benevolence on the one hand, but 
the reverse, so the accession to it, on the other, argues no 
absolute loss of original prerogatives, or entire renunciation 
of antecedent rights. These, as they belong to the Divine 
nature, can never be detached or diminished, but are as 
unchangeable as the nature to which they belong. Besides, 
these prerogatives constitute the fitness of the Mediator, or 
His infinite adequacy, for the mediatorial office, and enable 
Him to discharge it; and surely His rights are not to be 
regarded as annulled because of His perfections. And it is 
because of His retaining these original prerogatives, as 
well as on account of His manifestation of God, that He is 
often spoken of in Scripture, interchangeably, as acting 
both in His original and in his official capacity. 

(3.) That the mediatorial obligation will never termi- 
nate. As its sole design is the manifestation of God, its 
duration must run parallel with the manifestation; so that 
unless the universe were to be blotted out, or the perfec- 
tions of Deity to be exhausted, it can know no end. Com- 
mencing prior to the introduction of sin, it will continue 
in some sense, after all the probationary perturbations of 



40 



THE PRE- ADAMITE EARTH. 



the moral system have ceased, as the indispensable and 
everlasting proof of the Divine all-sufficiency. And what 
a view does this wonderful economy afford us of the all- 
comprehending glory of that end which could justify the 
adoption of such means in order to fulfil it ! 

(4.) And how inevitably does the arrangement suggest 
that if the primary relation gives rise to obligation, every 
subordinate relation will do the same; that the Creator 
will not be the only being under obligation; that all His 
creatures, in proportion to their relation to Him and to 
each other, will be under obligation also. 



CHAPTEE V. 

The Supreme Right ; or, Mediatorial Authority and Hap- 
piness commensurate with the discharge of Obligation. 

If the primary obligation be commensurate with the me- 
diatorial relation, it may be expected that the discharge of 
that obligation will be associated with corresponding rights, so 
that if the Being discharging it, do everything necessary to 
a constant approximation towards the great end, it will 
follow that he should meantime enjoy, or possess a right 
consistently with that end, both to whatever is necessary to 
the prosecution of his object, and to whatever flows from it. 
Here is a twofold right ; the first part, presupposing obliga- 
tion, and the second, presupposing its discharge. 

I. Independently of His original and unalienable rights, 
the nature of the Great End invests Him with a right of the 
highest order in relation to whatever may be included in 
the mystery of the Godhead. For example, if there be a 



THE SUPREME RIGHT. 



41 



distinction or subsistency in the Divine nature, designated 
the Holy Spirit; if the attainment of the end require the 
disclosure of this mysterious fact ; and if this disclosure can 
be only effected, consistently with the end, by His employ- 
ment of the agency of this Divine subsistency, His office 
entitles Him to avail Himself of that agency. His right is 
commensurate with His obligation. The end at which He 
aims being unlimited, all limitation must be removed from 
the means ; so that all the resources of the Divine nature 
are to be considered as at His disposal. 

II. 1. If He call any order of intelligent creatures into 
existence, with a view to their subordination to the great 
end, (and for no other purpose can they exist,) He has a 
right to their proper activity and service. If He Himself 
be under obligation to attain a certain end ; and if that 
obligation include the production and employment of appro- 
priate means, the same obligation rests on the means, pro- 
vided they are capable of obligation, as necessary steps to 
the attainment of the end ; for without them, the end can- 
not be attained. This is the very condition of their exist- 
ence ; for had it not been for that end they would not have 
been called into being ; had it not been for the mediatorial 
constitution on which that end is pursued, they could not 
have existed ; and were it not that they are intended to 
serve as means to that end, they would not have been con- 
stituted what they are. They hold existence, therefore, and 
their particular constitution of existence, on the prime con- 
dition that they answer the great end for which they have 
received both ; and to do this is at once their excellence and 
their happiness. He who has imparted both, has in no 
sense parted with His right in either. The excellence and 
happiness now found in the creature, existed potentially in 



42 



THE PRE-AT) AMITE EARTH. 



the Creator before they carne into the creature ; but in im- 
parting them to the creature, the Creator intended, not that 
His own glory should be thereby left unaffected, but that 
they should answer an end by which both they should be 
increased, and the Divine glory be thereby augmented. 

2. If, then, any of the creatures are so constituted that 
their activity increases their power of subserving the great 
end of their existence, He has a right to the whole of that 
increase; for it is owing entirely to his having constituted 
them as they are, that they are capable of such increase; 
and the great reason why He did so, is the same as that for 
which He constituted them at all — to subserve the great 
end of the Divine manifestation. 

3. If, again, owing to the providence or plan on which 
the end will be sought, and the consequent relationships in 
which successive creatures will stand to each other, their 
power of subserving that end should be augmented, He 
will, for the same reason, have a right to the whole of that 
augmentation. For, as the great system of means advances 
from one stage of development to another, it will be only 
the gradual unfolding of a plan which had always existed 
in His infinite mind. And as it existed there only with a 
view to the end, so whatever may be gained by the accom- 
plishment of a preceding part of the plan, is so much gained 
for the part succeeding, and so on to the end. 

4. If, again, owing to any of the free agents, which the 
plan contemplates, abusing their free agency, and with- 
holding their power, and thus violating the condition of 
their existence, the progress of the plan and the attainment 
of the great end should be thwarted, or, in any sense, 
endangered • and if, then, owing to His interposition in any 
way, the derangement of the system should be remedied, 
and be even turned to the account of the great end, He 



THE SUPREME RIGHT. 



43 



would have a right to all the advantage which that gracious 
interposition would give Him. Absolute as His right to 
their activity and devotedness was before, He has now 
established a new right of peculiar cogency. Before, He 
had called them from nothingness into happy existence, 
now he has called them from misery to happiness. But 
for the first act, they would never have been ; but for the 
second, they would never have been aught but miserable. 
Whatever may be the amount of their new obligation, there- 
fore, He is entitled to the result of it ; — of all the additional 
moral influence which it gives Him over their minds, of all 
the new motives to obedience which it should call into ex- 
istence, and of all the increase of power arising from the 
stimulating influence thus shed over the great system of 
means. 

III. The Mediator has a right also to whatever satisfac- 
tion can arise from the contemplation of His own conduct 
in its respective relations to God and to the creature. 

1. There is the happiness of beholding His ideas or 
designs objectively realized — He has a right to that. 
Accordingly, He is represented as having contemplated the 
first objects even of the material world, as they came forth 
from His hand, with Divine complacency. He looked on • 
them as visible realizations of eternal types. On comparing 
them, so to speak, with the archetypes in His own infinite 
mind, He beheld the perfect resemblance, and was satisfied. 
He regarded them as exponents or signs of certain corre- 
sponding qualities, infinitely greater in the Divine nature. 
And He beheld them in their prospective application; 
serving as indexes or memorials of that infinite greatness 
to myriads of minds which He purposed to create, and so 
to constitute that each of all these things should operate on 



44 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



them suggestively. He knew, therefore, all the lofty 
thoughts which these objects would ever suggest, and all 
the exquisite delight those thoughts would occasion, and 
all the holy admiration which the perception of this rela- 
tion between things that differ would ever produce. 

He looked on those objects also as the first in an endless 
series yet to come. In His first acts of creation, the great 
architect was laying the foundation of an all-comprehend- 
ing and eternal temple; and His infinite mind is to be 
regarded as having embraced, by anticipation, all the 
sublime results. The worshippers, the homage, the temple 
filled with the glory of the Divine manifestation — all were 
present to His mind — and He rejoiced in the glorious 
prospect. 

2. There is the happiness of prospectively beholding the 
activity, enlargement, and progress of the whole system of 
creation and providence — He has a right to the enjoyment 
of that. Not more certainly is the earth perpetually speed- 
ing on its destined course through space, and carrying with 
it all the momentous interests of humanity, than His plan, 
freighted with an eternal weight of glory for the creature, 
and with a weightier revenue of glory to God, is in con- 
stant progress. Never for a moment does it retrograde — 
never pause — never linger. Look on it when He will, He 
beholds it arrived at that stage, where, a thousand ages 
ago, He foresaw it would be ; and look forwards to what 
distant age He will, He beholds it, in anticipation, already 
there arrived. Hence, He is often represented in Scripture 
as foretasting the happiness arising from the contemplation 
of this progress. Out of the depths of eternity, He looked 
onwards to the period when creation should commence. 
" From everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth 
was, when there were no depths, no fountains abounding 



THE SUPREME RIGHT. 



45 



with water, when as jet He had not made the earth, nor 
the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world," 1 
He anticipated the period when all these would be. Beyond 
this,. He looked on to the remote period when the earth 
should be prepared for the reception and sustenance of 
animal life. He saw its forests wave ; its waters roll ; its 
surface clothed with verdure ; and the whole replenished 
with various orders of sentient being. Ages beyond, and 
when, by successive creations and mighty intervals of 
change, the earth should have been slowly prepared for the 
reception of a being such as man, His eye fixed on the time 
when, in order to that event, He should " prepare the 
heavens, and set a compass upon the face of the deep; 
when He should establish the clouds above; and when He 
should give to the sea His decree that the waters should not 
pass His commandment." Already, in His prescient view, 
the sun had received its final commission to shine, and 
earth had received its general outline of Alp, and Apennine, 
and Himalaya — of Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediterranean, 
Already Eden bloomed, and a river went out of it to water 
the garden. Man's mansion was prepared, but where was 
the great inhabitant ? The theatre was ready — where was 
the being on whose introduction the mighty drama should 
begin ? Already, in intention, He saw that creature come, 
radiant in His own image — the crown of creation : and, as 
He saw, He already heard " the morning stars sing to- 
gether;" saw earth's first sabbath dawn; beheld man's 
earliest act of adoration ; and pronounced the whole to be 
" good." Even then, though existing only in His Divine 
purpose, " He rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, 
and His delights were with the sons of men." He foresaw 

1 ten ni-ips titfi — Prov. viii. 26. Rendered by Gesenius the first 
(earliest) clod of the earth — i, e., which was first formed. 



46 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



His blessing enlarging J apheth, and causing him to dwell in 
the tents of Shem. His purpose had formed the great con- 
tinents of the earth, had smoothed the valleys where nations 
should be cradled, and given direction to the course of the 
rivers whose banks should become the seat of empire. 
The actual distribution of Canaan among the tribes of 
Israel was only the transcription of an eternal plan. 
" Remember the days of old, consider the years of many 
generations; ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy 
elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High 
divided to the nations their inheritance ; when He separated 
the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people accord- 
ing to the number of the children of Israel." Before Moses 
— before Pisgah itself, from which Moses looked down on 
the promised land, existed — His eye had looked down from 
the height of His sanctuary, and had beheld prospectively 
that Sinai whence His law should be given; that Zion 
which should be crowned with His temple; that Calvary 
which should sustain the mystery cf the cross. 

Now that the prospect of the development of His great 
plan affords him profound satisfaction is evident, not only 
from the Scriptures already quoted, but from the fact that 
He has sought, at times, to inspire His church with an 
ecstacy of delight by affording them glimpses of its onward 
course. All the sublime disclosures of prophecy are merely 
revelations of that future on which His eye is perpetually 
fixed; and by the prospect of which He would fain admit 
the faithful to a fellowship in His own delight. And all 
the satisfaction those disclosures have ever yielded to an 
Abraham, who " saw His day and was glad ;" to a David, 
an Isaiah, an Ezekiel, a Paul, a John, entranced with the 
vision — to the whole church, which " having seen them afar 
off, were persuaded of them, and embraced them," and died 



THE SUPREME RIGHT. 



47 



in exulting faith — all this is only a particle of the bound- 
less "joy which they have ever set before him." 

3. To Him also belongs the happiness of prospectively 
beholding the effects of His gratuitous interposition for 
human salvation. If, owing to no defect in the original 
constitution of the great plan of Providence, any part of 
that plan be violated by man ; and if, owing to no original 
defect in man, but owing to an abuse of his necessary free- 
agency, that violation take place; and if, therefore, 
without any claim on the interposition of the Mediator, He 
yet determined to remedy the evil, to take advantage of it 
in a way which shall accrue to the infinite good of the very 
beings who had introduced the evil, and to the furtherance 
of the great end of Divine manifestation — surely He has a 
right to the happiness arising from a view of the effects of 
His own interposition. Accordingly, there is a class of 
Scriptures which represents Him as rejoicing in the pros- 
pect of this interposition. And the satisfaction which He 
derives from the contemplation of that prospect, is heightened 
by the vivid contrast in which it ever stands before his 
view with what must have been the dreadful alternative if 
He had not interposed. And when He anticipates the day in 
which " He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and ad- 
mired in all them that believe, 7 ' He " sees of the travail of 
His soul, and is satisfied." 

4. Then He is entitled to the grateful homage of all who 
share the effects of His gracious interposition. Hence His 
own language, " that all men should honour the Son even 
as they honour the Father." 

5. The happiness flowing from the fact that on account 
of His mediatorial work, He is the object of the Father's in- 
finite delight, is greater still. For He estimates that com- 
placency at its proper worth, which is infinite, absolutely 



48 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



infinite ; and therefore greater than the intelligent creation, 
though its capacity be always enlarging, will ever be able 
to experience. 

6. And then there is the happiness derivable from know- 
ing that He is attaining the greatest of all ends — the mani- 
festation of the Divine all-sufficiency. Now, if this end be 
so great, that every other stands to it only in the relation of 
means ; if this is infinitely greater than all other ends com- 
bined, the happiness arising from the attainment of it must 
be infinitely greater also. The happiness flowing from the 
spectacle of a redeemed and happy creation must be great; 
for He knew not only what would be the exact measure of 
its happiness at this moment, but how happy it will be ten 
thousand ages hence, when its capacity for happiness will be 
increased ten thousand-fold — with all the happiness it will 
have enjoyed in the interval, and so on for ever. But in- 
conceivably high as He values that complacency, more highly 
still does He value that glory on account of the manifesta- 
tion of which that complacency is accorded to Him. He esti- 
mates everything as the eternal Father does; so that if the 
manifestation of the Divine glory be so dear to the Father 
that He pours His complacency on the Son for undertaking 
it, the Mediator himself regarding it in the same light, must 
derive from the contemplation of its attainment His highest 
delight. The prospect of beholding a universe of dependent 
beings hanging on independent all-sufficience ; every heart 
a channel through which a fulness of delight is constantly 
streaming from the great central source, and every moment 
enlarging to receive more; every sin forgiven, every evil 
remedied, every want supplied ; the whole reflecting, and re- 
plenished with, the Divine glory — this is the consummation 
of that glory which is set before Him. Much as He may 
delight in the favour of Deity, He rates the glory of the 



THE SUPREME EIGHT. 



49 



Deity higher still : for it is that which gives even to His 
favour all its value; so that to be the means of manifesting 
it to the universe is the crown of His mediatorial happiness, 
as it is the end of creation. 

And thus by a circularity in the nature of the mediato- 
rial constitution we are brought back to the point from 
which we set out — that the glory of God is the chief end of 
creation. It must necessarily have been so independent of 
all appointment ; and even had there -been (supposing an 
impossibility,) an appointment to the contrary. For even 
if a decree had appointed that the ultimate end of all things 
should be the well-being of the creature, the infinite capa- 
city for enjoyment of the Divine Being would not have 
allowed it to be the greatest end ; since God in beholding 
that well-being, and the manifestation of the Divine glory 
which it carried along with it, would, by right and necessity 
of nature, enjoy more than all the creatures together — infi- 
nitely more. The great reason, then, accounts for the pri- 
mary purpose ; the purpose originates the medial relation ; 
the relation imposes the great obligation ; and the obligation 
is followed by the right of the Being discharging it ; that 
is, the last ensues on the attainment, or, in proportion to the 
attainment of the first : and thus the Mediator, as such, 
finds his own end in attaining the great end. 



E 



SECOND PART. 



Principles deducible from the preceding Lectures ; or, 
Laivs of the Manifestation. 

From the preceding scriptural views of that which is pre- 
dicate of the Deity, considered as prior to the manifestation 
of the divine all -sufficiency, and in order to it, the following 
general deductions seem logically to result. Certain other 
intermediate principles, indeed, might with equal clearness, 
be inferred ; but, for the present, it is proposed to deal only 
with general truths. 

I. 

That every divinely originated object and event is a residt, 
of which the supreme and ultimate reason is in the Divine 
Nature. 

By which we mean that, not only is a reason for it to be 
found there, — this would only acquit the Maker from a 
charge of folly — but, that the ultimate and adequate reason 
why it is, and is what it is, is to be found there. For, if 
the origin of everything which may exist must be traced 
to him as the great first cause, everything will, in some 
sense, be like him; i.e., it will he, and will he what it is, 
when it proceeds from him, because he is what he is ; for 
before it was produced, it was potentially included in him. 
Additional reasons may be found in itself, and in other 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



51 



parts of creation, to account for its existence. And of vast 
significance may many of these reasons be to the creature. 
Yet all these will be found subordinate and traceable to that 
infinite reason which includes, but is independent of them 
all, as belonging to the infinite nature of God. These sub- 
ordinate reasons may only be coexistent with the respective 
natures in which they are found, — beginning and ending, 
therefore, in some cases, within the space of a few short 
hours — soon, and perhaps for ever, to be forgotten by all the 
rest of creation : but the infinite reason of their being at all 
existed from eternity in the nature of God, and can never 
cease to exist. However insignificant, comparatively, any 
given creature may be, not only is the reason of its exist- 
ence to be sought in God, as prior to, in the order of time, 
and causative of, that existence ; but as a reason which ap- 
proved itself to, and, in some sense, expressed a property of 
the divine nature. So that even if there were no purpose 
of manifesting Divine all-sufficiency, — but the creation were 
to be limited to the production of a single creature — still, as 
every effect must be in some sense like its cause, that single 
effect would be, (not formally but virtually,) a manifesta- 
tion, pro tanto, of the Divine Nature : in other words, its 
ultimate reason would be found in God. 

And on the same ground, every expression of His will, 
however it may be made, whether by word or act, will be a 
manifestation of something anterior, viz. of the Divine 
Nature. 

II. 

That everything sustains a relation to the great pur- 
pose, and is made subservient to it. 

If our view of the Divine purpose be correct, it will fol- 
low, that besides the former law of the creature's existence, 

e 2 



52 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



by which it is what it is, because God is what he is, and 
which law can never be superseded ; there is another law, 
arising from the Divine purpose, which makes it a primary 
condition of the creature's existence that it should contri- 
bute in some measure to the Great Manifestation. We can 
conceive, then, of a two-fold reason for everything, ad extra: 
— the one, arising from what God is, the other from what 
he purposes — the former a natural reason, the latter a 
moral necessity or reason of Divine appointment — the 
former looking back to its origin, the latter looking onwards 
to its end. For if the design of the whole be to manifest the 
Divine All-sufficiency, every part of the whole must of course 
combine to the same end. And as nothing which may 
exist, can have a separate, exclusive, and independent end 
of its own, everything will find its own end, in answering 
His. 

III. 

That the Manifestation will be carried on by a system 
of means, or medial relations. 

If our view of the great relation be correct, we may ex- 
pect, that that relation, as constituting the medium of the 
Divine Manifestation, will itself be manifested ; or that, in 
harmony with that primary relation, the whole manifesta- 
tion will consist of, or be carried on by, a system of corres- 
ponding medial relations, (relations rising with the rising 
nature of the being sustaining them ;) otherwise, that great 
relation itself will be but partially disclosed, if it be not 
even entirely, and for ever, unknown. 

Another reason for the medial constitution of the Crea- 
tion, is, that the Great Relation is not merely the medium 
of the manifestation, but an important part of it; just as 
the sun, besides being the medium of vision, is also the 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



53 



glory of the creation. Now as everything exists for the 
Divine Manifestation, of which that relation itself is a vital 
part, everything may be expected to manifest that Eelation 
by itself sustaining a medial relation. 

And, as everything is to express something of the Divine 
nature, and the Great Eelation involves an infinite disclo- 
sure of that nature, everything may be reasonably expected 
to bear, in some respects, the stamp of that Eelation. 

And further, — if, as we have shown in a previous chap- 
ter, the Great Purpose requires that the Manifestation should 
be progressive, it follows that it must consist of a succes- 
sion of events, in which each part will necessarily hold a re- 
lation to all the parts preceding, and following; just as the 
Primary relation is medial between the purpose and the end. 
For we can neither conceive of an event which must not be 
conceived of, as being, in some sense, an effect; nor of a 
succession of events which must not be conceived of as me- 
dially dependent and related. So that viewed in connexion 
with the second law, which determines that everything shall 
subserve the great end, this determines the mode or form 
in which that subserviency shall be rendered — by everything 
sustaining a relation, not merely to that end, but to every- 
thing else contributing to that end — a relation of mutual 
dependence and influence. 

IV. 

That everything will be found either promoting, or 
under an obligation to promote, the great end commensurate 
with its means and relations. 

If our view of the Great Eelation be correct — that it 
brings him who sustains it under obligation commensurate 
with his means of answering the great end — we may expect 
to find, that every subordinate relation will be accompanied 



54 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



by obligations corresponding in their number and amount 
with its power of promoting the end. 

For, according to the first law, it will necessarily express 
something of the Divine nature ; and according to the second 
law, it receives existence on the condition of manifesting that 
resemblance, and of contributing towards the Great End ; 
and according to the third) it is placed in a system of Medial 
Eelations, in order that such manifestation may be made 
possible. 

V. 

That everything wilt be entitled to an amount of good, 
or of icell-being, or will be found in the enjoyment of it, 
'proportionate to the discharge of its obligations, or, to the 
degree of its conformity to the laws of its being. 

For as, according to the first law, everything will neces- 
sarily express something of the Divine nature ; and accord- 
ing to the second, will come into existence in order to ex- 
press it ; and according to the third, will receive and sustain 
a relation in which to fulfil this law of its being ; and accord- 
ing to the fourth, will be held under obligation to this 
effect ; it will follow according to the fifth, that it cannot 
fulfil this law of its being without enjoying well-being. For, 
to manifest whatever its nature is calculated to exhibit of 
God, is to stand related on one side to the greatest of beings, 
and on the other to the greatest of ends ; so that to fulfil the 
law of its being, or to find its own highest end, is to answer 
the Great end; nor could it be supposed to be in any way 
deprived of its right, while thus fulfilling the law of its 
being, without the great end itself being, in so far, defeated. 
And here is the coincidence of the creature's happiness with 
the Creator's glory. 

For example; if the intelligent creature can do the same 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



55 



thing in obedience to different laws, his happiness can never 
rise above the law which he fulfils ; and if that law be a 
lower one, when it might, and therefore ought to be a higher 
one, — i. e. if the higher be sacrificed to the lower, — though 
obedience to the lower may not be unattended with reward 
or gratification, — the painful sense of having violated, or 
disregarded the higher, will more than counterbalance the 
gratification. 

According to these five laws, then, everything may be 
viewed, 1. In its origin. 2. Its ultimate design. 3. The 
way in which it answers that design. 4. Its obligation to 
do this as the necessary means to an end. 5. Its consequent 
share in the great end. Or, 1. In itself, as a separate and 
isolated product of the Divine Being. 2. In its intended 
subserviency to the great end. 3. In the nature of that 
subserviency, or the relations which it sustains in the great 
system of mutual dependencies. 4. In the obligatory ful- 
filment of this great conditional law of its existence. 5. In 
the natural and necessary results of such fulfilment, in its 
own well-being. The first law determines that it shall be 
— bear a resemblance to God. The second, why it shall 
be, — as a manifestation of that resemblance, in subser- 
viency to the Great End. The third, how it shall do this — 
as a part of a great system of means. The fourth, the 
indispensable necessity of doing it — as means to an end. 
And the fifth, what shall result to it from answering that End. 

According to the first law, it may be said, that every- 
thing looks bach to its origin. — According to the second, 
forwards to its ultimate end. — According to the third, 
around, to its medial relations. — According to the fourth, 
on the duty consequent on these relations. — And accord- 
ing to the fifth, within, on its own well-being, or particular 
end, as the result of answering the Ultimate End. 



56 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EAKTH. 



VI. 

That everything will be found to involve the existence 
of necessary truth . 

By necessary truth is meant that of which the propo- 
sition not only is, but must be true, and of which, there- 
fore, the negation is not only false but impossible; so that 
it exists necessarily, and therefore universally, indepen- 
dently of the existence of the individual intellect which 
contemplates it. The origin of this knowledge, whether by 
induction, or otherwise, is a question for separate consider- 
ation. 

The possibility of the manifestation, for example, pre- 
supposes the existence of certain necessary truths. It pre- 
supposes the existence of space and duration in which this 
manifestation is to be made — pre-supposes them as con- 
ditions of the manifestation. For, as nothing outward can 
be conceived of, without space — and nothing existing, with- 
out time in which to exist, it follows that everything must 
be, in some sense, related to space and time, or be included 
in them; and therefore space and duration must have 
existed prior to, and independently of, the manifestation. 
It pre-supposes also the possibility of causation, for it in- 
volves the necessity that every event shall be, in some 
sense, an effect ; and this proposition, therefore, would have 
been true, even if the manifestation had never taken place. 
It pre-supposes, then, the existence of the Great First Cause 
or Being to be manifested, whose absolutely unlimited per- 
fection, suppose infinite space and infinite duration; and, 
consequently, whose existence would have been a truth even 
if the manifestation had never been made. And thus as 
the purpose refers us to the Great Eeason of which it is 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



57 



simply and necessarily the expression, and as the Great 
Eeason is all that it is necessarily, or independently of 
every thing ad extra, so every event included in that pur- 
pose, being an effect or expression of that reason, will sus- 
tain some relation to the necessary and the independent. 

VII. 

That everything will be found to involve the existence 
of contingent truth. 

By contingent truth is meant that of which the exist- 
ence is not necessary, but conditional — true, because some- 
thing else is true ; or, dependent for its truth on something 
else. 

As the possibility of the manifestation pre- supposes the 
existence of necessary truth, so the purpose of the mani- 
festation implies the existence of contingent truth — contin- 
gent, that is, in the sense already explained, as opposed to 
absolutely necessary. For had the manifestation been ne- 
cessary in any other sense than that of being infinitely 
desirable, or morally necessary, no purpose of manifestation 
needed to have been formed. And then, as the great purpose 
itself was contingent on the Sovereign will of God, so every 
part of the internal arrangements of the plan {provided 
they secure the fulfilment of the purpose, or the manifesta- 
tion of divine all- sufficiency,) must be contingent also, or 
dependent on " the good pleasure V of that will in which 
the purpose itself originated. For if, in the sense described, 
the whole be contingent, the parts must be also ; nor could 
such contingency remain unknown, without defeating the 
ultimate end of the manifestation. 



58 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



VIII. 

That everything will be found, by necessity of nature, 
and as a relative perfection, essential to the manifestation of 
Divine all-sufficiency, to involve truth surpassing the per- 
fect comprehension of the finite mind — i.e. there will be ulti- 
mate facts. 

For if it were absolutely and in every sense comprehen- 
sible, it could be only, to created minds, the representation 
of something absolutely finite and limited. But such a 
thing is inconceivable. For as everything must be re- 
lated, in some respect, to time, space, and causation, as 
well as to every other thing included in the plan, — in con- 
sequence of these relations, if in no other respects, it will 
stand connected with the infinite, and incomprehensible. 
So that while the Great Purpose requires that it should 
manifest something of God, its relation to the Great Eeason 
will leave it involved, in some respects, in the necessary 
and the universal. 

And thus it will at once proclaim its origin and answer 
its end. 

IX. 

That the manifestation be progressive; or, that the 
production of new effects, or the introduction of new laws, 
be itself a Laiv of Manifestation. 

For were it to terminate at any given point, the proof 
of all- sufficiency for unlimited manifestation would termi- 
nate with it. Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very 
nature, requires infinity and eternity in which to be de- 
veloped, for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than 
these. But if the development of the Great Purpose, or 
the attainment of the Great End, be in its very nature 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



59 



progressive, this is only saying that the process must ever 
be kept open to receive the addition of new effects, or the 
superinduction of new laws. So that the law of uni- 
formity itself will always be subject to, or bounded by, 
this more general law of Progression: just as this more 
general law itself will always be subject to the law of the 
end, to which all particular laws owe their existence, and 
from which they derive their authority. And this again 
is only saying that the End shall not be subject to the 
means : but that the Great Purpose shall be carried into 
effect. 

So that, that which is commonly regarded as miraculous 
interposition may be itself a law of the Manifestation — not 
the exception, but the rule — or if the exception to us who 
view things only on the scale of a few days, to Him who 
views them on an unlimited scale it may be the rule. 

X. 

That the manifestation, besides being progressive, will 
be continuous ; or will be progressive by being continuous 
— leaving no intervals of time, or of degree, but such as 
the modifying influence of other laws may require or 
account for. 

For were it to leave such intervals, except on such con- 
ditions, the proof of all-sufficiency for filling them up would 
be wanting. Besides which, if all-sufficiency requires infi- 
nity, and eternity, in which to be developed, intervals in 
the manifestation of time and of degree are inadmissible; 
unless on the supposition that such intervals or pauses in 
the manifestation would themselves contribute to the mani- 
festation of all- sufficiency. 

It may be expected that it will be impossible to lay one's 
finger on the line which separates any one province of 



60 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



knowledge from that which lies next. To complain of a 
theory, therefore, that it combines and synthesizes, is to 
complain that it treats of things as they are ; or, as God has 
made them. Since it belongs to the perfection of these 
things, that they should not admit of isolation; if they did, 
they would not and could not belong to a system of pro- 
gressive and continuous manifestation. 

XI. 

That the Continuity of the manifestation requires that 
all the laws and results of the past should, in some sense, 
be carried forwards; and that all that is characteristic in 
the lower steps of the process should be carried up into 
the higher — as far as it may subserve the great end ; or 
unless it should be superseded by something analogous 
and superior in the higher, and the future. 

For if it were not, the manifestation would be neither 
progressive, nor continuous, but would be every moment 
beginning de novo. Everything would be isolated. After 
the manifestation had continued for untold ages, all the 
past would be unknown and lost to the present, and to all 
the future. And the proof of all-sufficiency, for such a con- 
tinuity of manifestation as that expressed in the proposi- 
tion, would be for ever wanting. 

XII. 

That everything will be found to manifest all that it is 
calculated to exhibit of the Divine Nature, by developing, 
or working out its own nature. 

For as, according to the First law, we are to expect that 
everything, per se, and separately considered, will exhibit 
something of God from mere necessity of nature. — just as 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



61 



the purpose of manifesting Divine all-sufficiency brought to 
light necessarily, and independently of all intention, the 
Divine self-sufficiency, so, according to the Second law, we 
are to expect, that as it is only by the activity of the 
Divine Nature, that that nature is made manifest, every 
being will be found to manifest all that it is calculated to 
exhibit of God's nature, by properly manifesting, or, work- 
ing out its own. The mere formation of the purpose im- 
plies the acting of the Divine Mind ; the accomplishment of 
that purpose, especially as it is a purpose of self-manifesta- 
tion, clearly supposes self-activity also; — the manifestation 
of Divine all -sufficiency evidently requires that that activity 
should be constant, unending, and all-comprehensive. A 
creation, then, devoid of regulated activity, could be no 
manifestation of an ever-living and ever-active God. Such 
a creation (were its existence possible) would less represent 
him than would the absence of all external objects; for, as a 
Divine manifestation, it would essentially misrepresent him. 
For how could that which neither moved nor was moved — 
which evinced no adaptation of means to an end — no capa- 
city of enjoyment — that which could receive nothing from 
without, and which involved nothing from within — that, 
therefore, which knew nothing, did nothing, and, in effect, 
was nothing — do anything but misrepresent Him who is 
All in All. The existence of such a universe is inconceiv- 
able. It is only by a universe of activity, then, that He 
can be manifested to whose activity the universe owes its 
existence. 

Still more may an active nature be expected in that 
order of creatures whose distinction it is to be, that not 
only by them, but to them, the manifestation will be made. 
For such activity may be looked for in them if only to help 
them to understand, by sympathy, the same property in 



62 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



the Divine Nature. And still more complete would this 
resemblance to their Maker be, if certain possibilities of 
active excellence could be stored up in them, and if these 
could in some way be put at their disposal, or under the 
power of their will; so that, as the Divine activity, ad 
extra, has been voluntary, their activity might resemble his 
in this essential respect — that it be voluntary also. 

The grounds which the other laws afford for the same 
expectation of activity in the intelligent creature are too 
obvious to require extended notice. For if the first pro- 
vides for it by imparting to him a measure of Divine 
resemblance, and the second by making his manifestation 
of that resemblance the condition of his existence, the third 
enables him to fulfil that condition, by placing him in a 
constitution of medial relations, Avhere his activity will be 
felt, the fourth makes such activity obligatory, and the 
fifth rewards it in his own well being, or attainment of the 
Great End. 

XIII. 

That the same property or characteristic which existed 
in the preceding and inferior stage of the manifestation, be 
superior in the succeeding and higher stages, or else be 
applied to additional or higher purposes, (if it be not 
altogether superseded by something superior;) or, that it be 
in the power of the succeeding, and the higher, so to render 
or to apply it. 

For as, by the great law of the Manifestation, everything 
is in alliance and dependence ; and as everything looks on to 
an end beyond itself, its nature, or its relations and results, 
may be expected to advance, the further it proceeds from 
its original starting-point towards the distant end, for the 
sake of which it exists. 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



63 



XIV. 

That as every law will have an origin or date, it will 
come into operation on each individual subject of it, 
according to its priority of date in the great system of 
manifestation. 

For as by the law of continuity with progression, every 
law has come into operation in orderly succession, that or- 
der of succession is itself a law : and as laws operate uni- 
formly for the same reason that they operate at all, viz. for 
the purpose of manifestation — the order of their introduc- 
tion at first into the general system, could not be dispensed 
with in any of the subsequent stages or parts of the mani- 
festation, without defeating the design of their introduction 
at all. 

XV. 

That everything will occupy a relation in the great 
system of means, and possess a right in relation to every- 
thing else, according to its power of subserving the end: 
— or, everything will bring in it and with it, in its own 
capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other 
things should be influenced by it — a reason for the degree 
in which they should be influenced — and for the degree in 
which it, in its turn, should be influenced by everything 
else. 

For if, according to the first law, everything, by neces- 
sity of nature, expresses some property of the Divine Na- 
ture : — if, according to the second, it possesses that resem- 
blance on the sole condition of manifesting it in subser- 
viency to the Great End : — if, according to the third, it is 
medially related to everything else, that it may be able to 
make the manifestation : — and if, according to the fourth, 



64 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



it is bound to fulfil the Great Purpose, according to its 
means and relations, then everything will sustain an active 
and a passive relation, or will have a right to influence 
everything of inferior, and a susceptibility of being influ- 
enced by everything of superior, subserviency to the Great 
End. 

So that (according to the all-connecting purpose) co- 
existence implies co -relation, correlation involves mutual 
obligation or subserviency, determinable as to kind and 
degree, in every instance, by the subserviency of the sub- 
jects of it to the Great End. 

XVI. 

That every law subordinate in rank, though it may have 
been prior in date, be subject to each higher law of the 
Manifestation, as it comes into operation. 

This, indeed, is a corollary from the preceding, and is 
only saying, in effect, that in no case shall the means be 
put in the place of the end. But if the means are to be 
always subordinated to the end, then, as everything is 
related, every inferior law must sustain a relation of subor- 
dination to every higher law of the Manifestation. 

XVII. 

That the whole process of manifestation be conducted 
uniformly, as far as the end requires, or according to the 
operation of laws. 

(By law is meant, a constant relation, or an order of 
sequence, according to which, if one event occur, another 
will follow.) This, the Great Reason requires, for it sup- 
poses that every event will be, in some sense, an effect, 
(which is in itself a law) : and that every divinely origi- 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



65 



nated effect will, when traced back to its origin, be found 
to express something in the Divine nature. 

The Great Purpose requires it: for it is only by the 
uniformity supposed that the immutability of the Divine 
nature, or even the Divine existence, could be evinced; 
or indeed, that proof of any kind could be made possible. 
Farther, the Great Purpose necessarily supposes a series of 
effects: and that as often as God should will, the same 
effect would follow from the same volition; otherwise He 
could not be certain that the end would ever be attained. 
Besides which, as the purpose of an infinitely perfect being, 
it is pursued on a plan, and a plan supposes the orderly 
arrangement and concurrent operation of distinct sequences 
of events, for the attainment of a certain end. It was 
only on the same supposition, of the operation of general 
laws, as far as the end requires, that the Mediator could 
assume the great Relation, or undertake to discharge the 
Obligation, or calculate on the enjoyment of his exalted 
Right. Indeed, the proposition that the manifestation 
will be conducted by general laws, is involved in the state- 
ment of all the preceding laws; for each of these state- 
ments is an attempt to define them. 

XVIII, 

That every part of the manifestation be analogous to 
every other part, or according to a plan. 

(By analogy is here meant, generally, a similarity of 
relation between things in some characteristic respects, 
when, in other respects, the things are different.) 

The truth of this proposition may be inferred from the 
pervading operation of general laws: from the primary 
relation, according to which he who is to conduct the great 
process sustains his office expressly as the Logos or mani- 

F 



66 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



festation of God; so that everything else can answer the 
end of manifestation only as it is analogous, according to, 
or, in some respect, resembling the Logos : from the Great 
Purpose ; for, if the whole creation is to be, in some sense, 
an analogue of the Divine nature, (and in no other way 
can it manifest God) then, every separate portion of it 
must be similarly related to every other part, otherwise 
the whole will not resemble Him. If the first act be an 
act of manifestation, and every subsequent act be a coun- 
terpart to all that has gone before, then the last of any 
given series will, to some extent, correspond to the first — 
each will be a measured resemblance of all, that the whole 
may be a manifestation of God. If the whole is to be a 
manifestation, it must be known; if known, classed; (for 
only a very few things could be known if each were isolated 
and unlike everything else) and if classed, possessing simi- 
larity of relation. 

XIX. 

That the law of ever-enlarging manifestation be itself 
regulated by a law determining the time for each succes- 
sive stage and addition in the great process. 

The time for the change in any given department of the 
Divine manifestation, will of course be determined in a 
manner, and for a reason, differing with the particular 
nature and design of the department : — by each existing 
stage passing through all the combinations and changes of 
which it admits, before another begins ; or, by its existing 
long enough to show that it involves all the necessary pos- 
sibilities for answering such and such ends, if its continu- 
ance be permitted; or, until it has sufficiently taught the 
specific truth, and attained the proximate and particular 
end, for which it was originated. 



LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 



67 



But, whatever the particular reason for determining the 
period of change may be, it is evident that the law of the 
time and the occasion for every change must harmonize with 
the Great End of the whole — the manifestation of the Divine 
All-sufficiency. For, were a stage of the manifestation to 
be recalled or replaced a moment before it had, in some 
way, demonstrated the all-sufficiency of God for that parti- 
cular stage, the Great Purpose would not be answered. 

From which it follows that no such change or interposi- 
tion takes place arbitrarily ; but, as the laws of progression, 
and of the end, require it. 

And that the length of the time which may be allowed 
to elapse, after the introduction of one law or change, be- 
fore the introduction of another, so far from growing into 
an objection against any further addition or change, be- 
comes, in a progressive system, an ever-increasing ground 
for expecting it. 

XX. 

That the beings to whom this Manifestation is to be 
made, and by whom it is to be understood, appreciated, and 
voluntarily promoted, must be constituted in harmony with 
these laws; or, these laws of the objective universe will be 
found to have been established in prospective harmony with 
the designed constitution and the destiny of the subjective 
mind which is to expound and to profit by them. 

The truth of this proposition, if not self-evident, will 
receive abundant illustration when, in a subsequent volume, 
they come under consideration. 



THIRD PART. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



The First Stage of the Manifestation: 

POWER. 

1. Order of the Manifestation. — The great end of crea- 
tion, then, is supposed to be the gradual manifestation of 
Divine all-sufficiency. Now, travelling back, in thought, 
to the eve of creation, " Here," we might say, " here is 
an infinite expanse of unoccupied space in which the great 
end is to be realised ; what will be the first step ? or with 
what will the manifestation commence? In what order, and 
at what rate, will it proceed ? What extent of space will it 
occupy ? What possibilities will it involve ? Of how many 
parts or stages will it consist? Will it, or will it not, 
have any special scene or scenes of operation? 

That these are subjects which occupied the Divine mind 
— not, indeed, as questions which admitted of hesitation — 
but as parts of His one great purpose, is evident ; for they 
are actually suggested by the fact of what He has done ; and 
He does nothing which he has not purposed to do. Now, 
imagining ourselves in the situation supposed, and taking 
along with us the laws which we have derived from 
the scriptural view of the Nature and Purpose of God, 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



69 



we might have justly reasoned that if the Divine Pur- 
pose requires that the creation be progressive, it might 
be expected to determine also the order of the progres- 
sion, or what perfection of the Deity shall be first dis- 
played, as well as the act or means by which the display 
shall be made. In the nature of the case, there is nothing, 
ad extra, to determine either with what the manifesta- 
tion shall begin, or how it shall proceed. Even if there 
were, inasmuch as the great object of creation is the mani- 
festation of the Divine perfections, the order of the process 
must be regulated by the order prescribed by the object of 
the Divine purpose — the means must be made subservient 
to the end. But there is nothing ad extra, so that there 
is a necessity as well as a reason, why the order of the mani- 
festation should take the order best adapted for the attain- 
ment of the Divine purpose, and prescribed by it. 

Whether there is any order, then, in the Divine purpose, 
and, if so, what that order is, are among the very things 
to be manifested. Now, according to the constitution of 
the human mind, we are led to the conclusion that there 
is ; and that the earliest display of the Divine Nature will 
be that of a perfection fundamental to all the rest, namely, 
Power. It may here be proper to observe, though it is 
only, in effect, the repetition of a remark in our first Part, 
that by the Divine perfections we do not understand " a 
congeries of separate and separable attributes, like the 
members of an organized body," one of which may be exer- 
cised at one time and another at another; but the same 
one unitive perfection, exhibiting itself in a variety of 
phases and aspects with a view to entire manifestation. And 
according to the constitution of our minds, there is a certain 
order in which these different aspects may be viewed; by 



70 



THE PRE- ADAMITE EAKTH. 



which we gain sight of an additional characteristic or per- 
fection at each view; and are prepared by each foregoing 
perfection for the contemplation of each succeeding one. 

Now the first and the only simple attribute of whose 
manifestation we can conceive is that of Power. The dis- 
play of every other attribute supposes the co-existence and 
manifest co-operation of this in order to its display. But the 
exercise of this does not necessarily suppose the manifest 
co-operation of any other. For although, in the case of an 
infinitely perfect Being, we can never conceive of power 
exercised apart from intelligence, we can conceive (and the 
case before us is one in which we are conscious of the con- 
ception) of an act of combined intelligence and power, 1 of 
which, while the power should be so self-evident and awful 
as suddenly to fill us with amazement, the intelligence 
which it involved, owing to its very depth, should be com- 
pletely hidden from our view, and require the lapse of ages 
for its development. In this case we should contemplate 
power in its simplest form — that of causation ; — a mighty 
moral cause producing a mighty effect. 2 

2. Antiquity of the Earth. — Jf according to our 

1 Indeed, if this were the place, it might be shown that even the 
inference of design, is subsequent to the observation of the adjust- 
ments and adaptations of nature, as that again must necessarily be 
subsequent to the production of the things adjusted. 

2 I believe that we derive the idea of causation — voluntary or 
moral causation — from consciousness; that, besides the constant con- 
nexion which we observe between physical causes and effects, we are 
conscious of exerting a power in the effects which we ourselves pro- 
duce on matter subject to us; that this consciousness awakens the idea 
of voluntary or moral causation; and that this idea leads to the belief 
in the existence of a First cause. But the psychological views to which 
the discussion of this question would lead, belong to another treatise. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



71 



first law, every divinely originated event is a result of 
which the supreme and ultimate reason is in the Divine 
Nature, it might have been expected that the order of the 
Divine perfections, or else the nature of the Divine Purpose, 
would determine the order of the creative process, and that 
the opening act would be a display of power. But if, by 
oi] e law, we arrive at the conclusion that the first act of 
manifestation will be a display of power, the law of progres- 
sion suggests that that display will be made by an act to 
which we can conceive no act antecedent ; one which is not 
merely introductory to every other, but preparatory to the 
whole — first in the order of nature as well as of time. 

Now revelation and science harmonise with reason, and 
are decisive on the subject that, as far as the visible universe 
is concerned, the formation of its material preceded the 
formation of everything else. Turning first to the inspired 
record to ascertain the origin of things as they now are, we 
learn, of our earth, that it assumed its present state a few 
thousands of years ago, in consequence of a creative pro- 
cess, or of a series of creative acts concluding with the 
creation of man, which extended through a period of six 
ordinary or natural days. Possessed of this fact respecting 
the date of man's introduction on the earth, we proceed to 
examine the globe itself. And here we find that the mere 
shell of the earth takes us back through an unknown series 
of ages, in which creation appears to have followed creation 
at the distance of mighty intervals between. 

But though in the progress of our inquiries we soon find 
that we have cleared the bounds of historic time, and are 
moving far back among the periods of an unmeasured and 
immeasurable antiquity, the geologist can demonstrate that 
the crust of the earth has a natural history. That he can- 



72 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 

not determine the chronology of its successive strata is 
quite immaterial. We only ask him to prove the order of 
their position from the newest deposit to the lowest step of 
the series; and this he can do. For nature itself — by a 
force calculable only by the God of nature — lifting up in 
places the whole of the mighty series in a slanting, ladder- 
like, direction to the surface, has revealed to him the order 
in which they were originally laid, and invites him to 
descend step by step to its awful foundations. 

Let us descend with him, and traverse an ideal section 
of a portion of the earth's crust. Quitting the living 
surface of the green earth, and entering on our downward 
path, our first step may take us befow the dust of Adam, 
and beyond the limits of recorded time. From the moment 
we leave the mere surface-soil, and touch even the nearest 
of the tertiary beds, all traces of human remains disappear, 
so that let our grave be as shallow as it may in even the 
latest stratified bed, we have to make it in the dust of a 
departed world. Formation now follows formation, com- 
posed chiefly of sand, and clay, and lime, and presenting a 
thickness of more than a thousand feet each. As we descend 
through these, one of the most sublime fictions of mythology 
becomes sober truth, for at our every step an age flies past. 
We find ourselves on a road where the lapse of duration is 
marked — not by the succession of seasons and of years, — 
but by the slow excavation, by water, of deep valleys in 
rock marble ; by the return of a continent to the bosom of 
an ocean in which ages before^it had been slowly formed ; 
or by the departure of one world and the formation of 
another. And, accordingly, if our first step took us below 
the line which is consecrated by human dust, we have to 
take but a few steps more, before we begin to find that the 
fossil remains of all those forms of animal life with which 



• 



INORGANIC NATURE. 73 

we are most familiar, are diminishing, and that their places 
are gradually supplied by strange and yet stranger forms ; 
till, in the last fossiliferous formation of this division, traces 
of existing species become extremely rare, and extinct 
species everywhere predominate. 

The secondary rocks receive us as into a new fossiliferous 
world, or into a new series of worlds. Taking the chalk 
formation as the first member of this series, we find a strati- 
fication upwards of a thousand feet thick. Who shall 
compute the tracts of time necessary for its slow sedimen- 
tary deposition ! So vast was it, and so widely different 
were its physical conditions from those which followed, that 
only one trace of animal species still living is to be found 
in it. Crowded as it is with conchological remains, for 
example, not a shell of one of all the seven thousand existing 
species is discoverable. Types of organic life, before un- 
known, arrest our attention, and prepare us for still more 
surprising forms. Descending to the system next in order — 
the oolitic — with its many subdivisions, and its thickness 
of about half a mile, we recognise new proofs of the date- 
less antiquity of the earth. For, enormous as this bed is, 
it was obviously formed by deposition from sea and river 
water. And so gradual and tranquil was the operation, 
that, in some places, the organic remains of the successive 
strata are arranged with a shelve-like regularity, reminding 
us of the well-ordered cabinet of a naturalist. Here, too, 
the last trace of animal species still living, has vanished. 
Even this link is gone. We kuve reached a point when the 
earth was in the possession of the gigantic forms of Saurian 
reptiles, — monsters more appalling than the poet's fancy ever 
feigned ; and these are their catacombs. Descending through 
the later red sandstone and saliferous marls of two thou- 
sand feet in thickness, and which exhibit, in their very 



74 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 

variegated strata, a succession of numerous physical changes, 
our subterranean path brings us to the carboniferous sys- 
tem, or coal formations. These coal strata, many thousands 
of feet thick, consist entirely of the spoils of successive 
ancient vegetable worlds. But in the rank jungles and 
luxuriant wildernesses which are here accumulated and 
compressed, we recognise no plant of any existing species. 
Here, too, we have passed below the last trace of reptile 
life. The speaking foot-prints impressed on the preceding 
rocks, are absent here. Nor is there a single convincing 
indication that these primeval forests ever echoed to the 
voice of birds. But between these strata, beds of limestone 
of enormous thickness are interposed; each proclaiming the 
prolonged existence and final extinction of a creation. For 
these limestone beds are not so much the charnel-houses of 
fossil animals, as the remains of the animals themselves. 

The mountain masses of stone which now surround us, 
extending for miles in length and breadth, were once sen- 
tient existences — testaceous and coralline, — living at the 
bottom of ancient seas and lakes. How countless the ages 
necessary for their accumulation; when the formation of 
only a few inches of the strata required the life and death 
of many generations. Here, the mind is not merely carried 
back through immeasurable periods, but, while standing 
amidst the petrified remains of this succession of primeval 
forests and extinct races of animals piled up into sepulchral 
mountains, we seem to be encompassed by the thickest 
shadow of the valley of death* 

On quitting these stupendous monuments of death, we 
leave behind us the last vestige of land-plants, and pass 
down to the old red sandstone. The geological character of 
this vast formation, again, tells of ages innumerable. For, 
though many thousand feet in depth, it is obviously derived 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



75 



from the materials of more ancient rocks, fractured, decom- 
posed, and slowly deposited in water. The gradual and 
quiet nature of the process, and therefore its immense 
duration, are evident from the numerous " platforms of 
death" 1 which mark its formation, each crowded with 
organic structures which lived and died where they are now 
seen ; and which, consequently, must have perished by some 
destructive agency, too sudden to allow of their dispersion, 
and yet so subtle and quiet as to leave the place of their 
habitation undisturbed. 

Immeasurably far behind us as we have already left the 
fair face of the extant creation, while travelling into the 
night of ancient time, we yet feel, as we stand on the 
threshold of the next, or Silurian, system, and look down 
towards " the foundations of the earth," that we are not 
half way on our course. Here, on surveying the fossil 
structures, we are first struck with the total change in the 
petrified inhabitants of the sea, as compared with what we 
found in the mountain limestone; implying the lapse of 
long periods of time, during the formation of the inter- 
vening old red sandstone which we have just left. But 
still more are we impressed with the lapse of duration, 
while descending the long succession of strata, of which 
this primary fossiliferous formation is composed, when we 
think of their slow derivation from the more ancient rocks ; 
of their oft repeated elevation and depression; of the long 
periods of repose, during which hundreds of animal species 
ran through their cycle of generations, and became extinct ; 
and of the continuance of this stratifying process, until 
these thin beds had acquired, by union, the immense thick- 
ness of a mile and a half. Next below this, we reach the 

1 Mr. Hugh Miller's " Old Red Sandstone," (1841,) p. 234; a work 
of peculiar interest. 



76 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



Cambrian system, of almost equal thickness, and formed by 
the same slow process. Here the gradual decrease of 
animal remains admonishes us that even the vast and 
dreary empire of death has its limits, and that we are now 
in its outskirts. But there is a solitude greater than that 
of the boundless desert, and a dreariness more impressive 
than that which reigns in a world entombed. On leaving 
the slate-rocks of the Cambrian, and descending to those of 
the Cumbrian formation, we find that the worlds of organic 
remains are past, and that we have reached a region older 
than death, because older than life itself. Here, at least, if 
life ever existed, all trace of it is obliterated by the fusing 
power of the heat below. But we have not even yet reached 
a resting-place. Passing down through the beds of mica 
schist, many thousand feet in depth, to the great gneiss for- 
mation, we find that we have reached the limits of stratifica- 
tion itself. The granitic masses below, of a depth which man 
can never explore, are not only crystallized themselves, but 
the igneous power acting through them, has partially crys- 
tallized the rocks above. Not only life, but the conditions 
of life, are here at an end. 

Now, is it possible for us to look from our ideal position, 
backwards and upwards to the ten miles height — supposing 
the strata to be piled regularly — from which we have de- 
scended, without feeling that we have reached a point of 
immeasurable remoteness in terrestrial antiquity? Can 
we think of the thin soil of man's few thousand years, in 
contrast with the succession of worlds we have passed 
through ; of the slow formation of each of these worlds on 
worlds, by the disintegration of more ancient materials and 
their subsidence in water; of the leaf-like thinness of a 
great proportion of the strata ; of the consequent flow of 
time necessary to form only a few perpendicular inches of 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



77 



all these miles ; or of the long periods of alternate elevation 
and depression, action and repose, which mark their forma- 
tion, without acknowledging that the days and years of 
geology are ages and cycles of ages ! Let us conceive, if 
we can, that the atoms of one of these strata have formed 
the sands of an hour-glass, and that each grain counted a 
moment, and we may then make some approximation to the 
past periods of geology; periods in the computation of 
which the longest human dynasty, and even the date of the 
pyramids, would form only an insignificant fraction. Or, 
remembering that no one species of animals has, so far as 
we know, died out during the sixty or seventy centuries of 
man's historic existence upon earth, can we think of the 
thousands, not of generations, but of species, of races, which 
we have passed in our downward track, and which have 
all run through their ages of existence and ceased ; of the 
recurrence of this change again and again, even in the 
same strata; and of the many times over these strata must 
be repeated in order to equal the vast sum of the entire 
series, without feeling that we are standing, in idea, on 
ground so immeasurably far back in the night of time, as 
to fill the mind with awe? u How dreadful is this place!' 7 
Here, at as incalculable a saccular distance, probably, from 
the first creation of organic life, as that is from the last 
creation — here, silence once reigned : the only sound which 
occasionally broke the intense stillness being the voice of 
subterranean thunder; the only motion (not felt, for there 
was none to feel it,) an earthquake; the only phenomenon, 
a molten sea, shot up from the fiery gulph below, to form 
the mighty framework of some future continent. And still 
that ancient silence seems to impose its quelling influence, 
and to allow in its presence the activity of nothing but 
thought. And that thought — what direction more natural 



78 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



for it to take than to plunge still farther back into the 
dark abyss of departed time, till it has reached a First, or 
Efficient Cause? 

3. The earth not eternal. — But, although we seem to 
be thus conducted almost into the frontiers of eternity, the 
moment we glance our eye in that direction, all the cycles 
of geology dwindle to a point. In the presence of Him, 
with whom a thousand years are as one day, we recover 
ourselves to perceive that these cycles are immense only in 
relation to ourselves. Accordingly, every step of our down- 
ward path has been suggestive of a beginning ; for every- 
thing speaks of derivation. Each rock, for example, points 
downwards to its source. We can trace the lineal extrac- 
tion of each successive stratum. And even now, having 
reached the crypt of nature, and standing at the bases of 
her gneissic columns, should the question be asked, — 
" Whence their derivation ?" geology points to the older 
granitic masses, of whose water-worn crystalline particles 
they are evidently composed. " But whence that granite?" 
Mineralogy shows that it is composed of three very distinct 
mineral substances. Crystallography demonstrates, next, 
by cleavage or mechanical division, that each of these three 
substances is compounded of atoms or molecules inex- 
pressibly minute, and each of these again of others still 
more minute, and so on to an indefinite extent; yet that 
each of these possesses a determinate geometrical figure, 
and combines in fixed and definite proportions. Chemical 
analysis now takes up the process of reduction, and shows — 
taking the carbonate of lime, for example — that each of 
these integrant molecules is divisible into two compound 
substances. And, still further, it shows that even each of 
these is a compound body. But here the process of decom- 
position ends. The elementary molecules thus obtained — 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



79 



of calcium, carbon, and oxygen — are three of the fifty-four 
or five substances which, to us, are indivisible and ultimate ; 
and which, as it has been beautifully expressed by Daubeny, 
deserve to be regarded as the alphabet, composing the great 
volume which records the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator. 1 

The ancient atheistic theory of a fortuitous concourse 
of atoms is thus exploded ; since it is demonstrable, as we 
have seen, that all crystalline mineral substances exist 
only under fixed geometrical forms, and unite only in 
unchangeably definite proportions. Fortuity has no exist- 
ence here. We are in the region of law; and law implies 
a lawgiver. 

Here, too, the sceptical theory which would substitute 
an eternal nature for an eternal God of nature, stands ex- 
posed and condemned. To say nothing of the logical 
absurdity which the theory involves, in professing to 
account for the existence of a vast magazine of exquisite 
contrivances without a contriver; we have only to recal 
the fact, that in our subterranean descent we passed the 
actual beginning of species after species, down to a state of 
the globe in which life was impossible. Thus Nature her- 
self, disclaiming the honour thrust upon her at the expense 
of her Maker, emphatically declares, " It is not in me." 
The compounded state of the inorganic masses, down to 
the crystalline granite, joins also in affirming the same 
truth; and it is with the argument from inorganic matter 
that we have, at present, to do. Now, it cannot be 
affirmed that matter has always existed in a compounded 
state ; for unless it could be proved that its compound is 
its necessary state, it would follow that, at some period or 
other in past duration, it must have been in a simple 
1 See Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i., c. xxiii. 



80 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



state. But chemical analysis demonstrates that a com- 
pounded state is not a necessary condition of its existence; 
for it can be analyzed and exhibited in its elements. From 
which it follows, either that there was a period when 
matter existed in its uncompounded simple elements — and 
then the questions arise, whence the existence of these 
mysterious substances? and whence the multiplied laws by 
which they began to combine in so varied, definite, and 
complex a manner, that, to bring one of them to light, 
immortalizes the discoverer for his sagacity and wisdom ? 
or else, that matter has never existed otherwise than in a 
compounded state, and has thus always confessed itself a 
made, originated thing. 

Indeed, the non-eternity of the planetary system, or the 
fact that the present order of things had a commencement, 
might be argued from the admitted existence of a resisting 
medium in space. The argument is mathematical, and 
may be regarded as the continuous summation of infinitely 
small quantities. For, only admit that planetary motion 
encounters resistance ; and though it be so small as to be 
inappreciable within a thousand millions of years, still, if 
it had been from eternity, the motion resisted must have 
come to an end. Now, the motion of Encke's comet, as 
well as that of the comet discovered by M. Biela, renders 
the existence of such a medium almost certain. True, its 
effect even on the whisp-like vapour of a comet may be so 
small as to require between twenty and thirty thousand 
years to reduce the cometary motion to one-half its present 
value. To reduce the present velocity of Jupiter by one- 
half, might require a period of four hundred and ninety 
millions of years. Still, as that reduction has not taken 
place, the planet cannot have existed from eternity. Its 
motion must have had a beginning. The chronometer of 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



81 



the heavens must have been wound up within a limited 
time, for it has not jet run down. 

The object of the nebular hypothesis of Laplace — which 
supposes the earth, and the system to which it belongs, to 
have arisen from the gradual condensation of a diffused, 
vaporous, nebula — professes to take us back to a beginning, 
but only a beginning of existing motions. Its immediate 
design was merely to suggest analogically the possible origin 
of the motions of the solar system. It says nothing whatever 
— it can say nothing— -in disproof of the Divine origination 
of matter. It may trace back the mass to an anterior state, 
which " was itself preceded by other states, in which the 
nebulous matter was more and more diffuse. And in this 
manner we arrive," says Laplace, " at a nebulosity so dif- 
fuse, that its existence could scarcely be suspected. Such 
is, in fact, the first state of the nebulas, which Herschel 
carefully observed by means of his powerful telescopes." 
Superior telescopic power, indeed, has recently thrown dis- 
credit on the hypothesis, by resolving many of the supposed 
nebulas into clusters of stars ; a fact suggesting the proba- 
bility that a still superior telescopic power would resolve 
other nebulous appearances and bring new ones to light; 
and so on without end. So on, at least, until we possess 
that which we have not at present, nor are likely to obtain, 
a telescope — an instrument for viewing the end or limit. 

But even allowing the hypothesis to become a demon- 
stration, it has only removed the origination of matter to 
an epoch farther back in past duration. Having profess- 
edly conducted us back to its earliest nebulous condition, 
the hypothesis leaves us. This is the ultimatum of phy- 
sical science. Eespecting the anterior, the primitive, 
state of matter, we are still left in ignorance. Transferring 

G 



82 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



our inquiries into those depths of past time to which the 
hypothesis would conduct us, we still have to inquire, 
whence came that nebula? Why is it where it is? Whence 
the cause of its condensation, separation, collocation, and 
motions? — processes which, under the circumstances, no 
laws we are acquainted with are sufficient to explain. 
Having traced the history of the earth back through 
numerous changes to its supposed nebulous state, we ask, 
with the confidence that we are so much the nearer to 
the beginning, what was the primary change — the first 
effect? The very fact, that our examination has disclosed 
to us the proximate beginnings of previous states of the 
earth, suggests the idea of a primary beginning, and pre- 
pares us to hear of it. 

We do not expect, be it remarked, that science will ever 
be able to conduct us knowingly to such a commencement. 1 
Even if permitted to gaze on the primordial elements of 
things, science could not of itself be certain of the fact. If, 
while the astronomer was searching the depths of space with 
his instruments, a nebulous body were to be strictly origi- 
nated under his gaze, his science could not assure him that 
the body had not come wandering thither from some distant 
quarter, where it had existed under other conditions. The 
fact that it must sometime have had a beginning, might be 
instinctively felt by him as a truth of reason ; but, in the 
nature of things, the fact could be made known to him only 
as an authoritative announcement, and that announcement 
could come to him only from another and a higher source — 
from the Divine Originator himself. All that we look for 
at the hands of science is, to admit the analogical evidence 
which the natural history of the earth affords of a true and 

1 See Dr. Whewell's excellent Treatise on the Indications of the 
Creator, pp. 150 — 171. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



83 



real beginning ; and to satisfy the intellectual necessity, the 
imperative requirements, of reason, by admitting that such 
a commencement there must have been, preparatory to the 
due reception of the sublime and inspired affirmation, In 
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 

4. From a careful consideration of the subject, my full 
conviction is, that the verse just quoted was placed by the 
hand of Inspiration at the opening of the Bible as a distinct 
and independent sentence ; that it was the Divine intention 
to affirm by it, that the material universe was primarily 
originated by God from elements not previously existing ; 
and that this originating act was quite distinct from the 
acts included in the six natural days of the Adamic crea- 
tion. 1 

5. Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be 
proper to notice two objections to the great antiquity of the 
earth, although they are not of a directly Biblical nature. 
The first relates to the geological evidence of that antiquity, 
and may be expressed thus : Why might not God have 
created the crust of the earth just as it is, with all its num- 
berless stratifications and diversified formations, complete? 
And the analogy for such an exercise of creative power is 
supposed to be found in the creation of Adam, not as an 
infant, but an adult; and in the production of the full- 
sized trees of Eden. To which the reply is direct : the 
maturity of the first man, and of the objects around him, 
could not deceive him by implying that they had slowly 
grown to that state. His first knowledge was the know- 
ledge of the contrary. He lived, partly, in order to pro- 
claim the fact of his creation. And, could his own body, 
or any of the objects created at the same time, have been 
subjected to a physiological examination, they would no 

1 See note at the close of the volume. 
G 2 



84 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



doubt have been found to indicate their miraculous produc- 
tion in their very destitution of all the traces of an early 
growth ; whereas the shell of the earth is a crowded store- 
house of evidence of its gradual formation. So that the 
question, expressed in other language, amounts to this: 
Might not the God of infinite truth have enclosed in the 
earth, at its creation, evidence of its having existed ages 
before its actual production ? Of course, the objector would 
disavow such a sentiment. But such appears to be the 
real import of the objection; and, as such, it involves its 
own refutation. 

6. The second relates to the long period during which 
the earth was, according to geological disclosures, compa- 
ratively unoccupied, and amounts to this : Is it likely that 
so long a period would have been allowed by the Almighty 
to elapse, after the creation of the earth, before the pro- 
duction of the human race ? Now, if this be said from a 
regard to the relative importance of man, as if all created 
time were lost till he appeared, it is sufficient to reply, that 
he has still an eternity before him ; and that had he been 
created a myriad of ages earlier than he was, there would 
yet have been an eternity behind him. If it be said, in the 
spirit of homage to the Creator, it should be remembered 
that to Him " who inhabiteth eternity," there can be neither 
early nor late; that to Him "a thousand years are as 
one day, and one day as a thousand years." Besides which, 
the pre- Adamite antiquity of the earth is not, as the objec- 
tion seems to imply, useless to man. On the contrary, he 
is indebted to the processes which were then taking place, 
for all the principal means of his material civilization. And, 
then, as a creature in whose mind ideas succeed each other, 
how eminently calculated is the mere attempt of opening 
his imagination to let a procession of ten thousand ages 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



85 



pass through, or of the events of such a period, to subserve 
his highest interests, by elevating his conceptions of the 
Being who has superintended the whole. Other beneficial 
results might easily be specified. And unless the objector 
knew all the ends which were answered by the long periods 
of the earth's existence, prior to the creation of man ; and 
all which will be derived from it in the eternity to come, 
lie is not in a situation to pronounce on the subject. For 
aught he knows, a disclosure of all those ends would con- 
vert his present scepticism respecting the antiquity of the 
earth, into a feeling of wonder that the periods of geology 
had not been of longer duration than they were. 

I 

The First Effect; Matter. — Assuming, on the grounds 
stated, then, the great antiquity of the earth, let us go back 
in thought to that " beginning " when God created the 
material universe. Up to the moment of its origination 
there had been only one substance; for " God is a Spirit.'' 
Not more amazing, therefore, as a display of power, would 
the origination of a third substance now be, differing from 
the two already existing as much as these two differ from 
each other, than was the origination of matter as the open- 
ing act of the visible creation. Here, according to our 
first law, was an effect of which the supreme and ultimate 
reason must be in the Divine Nature. 

1. It is by no means important for us to inquire, whe- 
ther or not the Being who spake this immensity of matter 
into existence and activity, separated it from the first into 
masses, and distributed those masses into the places and 
proportions and harmonious relations which prevail at pre- 
sent ; or, whether he merely produced a vast central and 
aggregate chaos, as the material from which stars and sys- 



86 



THE TRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



terns should subsequently issue, by a series of distinct crea- 
tive acts. If it should appear that the first was the fact, 
it might indeed be considered that the collocation and 
adjustment of the celestial mechanism, by furnishing a grand 
display of the knowledge of God, impeached our general 
proposition that the primary act of creation was chiefly a 
manifestation of power. But to this it would be sufficient 
to reply, that the knowledge which such a distribution of 
matter would have displayed from the first, would only 
show that the power was intelligent and not a blind fate ; 
that it would not the less, but the more, illustrate the power 
which effected it — " knowledge," in this instance, would be 
"power;" that we do not claim for the first stage of the 
manifestation a display of power exclusively, since every 
act of an infinitely perfect Being must virtually include the 
effect of every attribute of which that perfection consists; 
that such a virtual inclusion of wisdom and goodness in 
power, as well as of power in wisdom and goodness, is 
essential to that continuity of divine manifestation which 
it is our aim to illustrate ; but that we claim for it the 
exhibition of power principally and supremely; and that 
God himself is often found to appeal to the work of creation 
as his own chosen proof of power. 

2. According to the nebular hypothesis, however, such a 
distribution of matter was not simultaneous with its origi- 
nation. Now, whatever may be the merits of this hypo- 
thesis in relation to the whole universe of matter, it is 
certain that the shape of our own planet — that of an oblate 
spheroid, or a sphere flattened at the poles — is precisely 
that which a fluid body would assume by rotation about an 
axis. And, on examining the constitution of the primary 
rocks, it is, as we have seen, found to be the result of a 
state of fusion. They are all crystallized ; and many of the 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



87 



series above them are found to be almost as crystalline in 
their texture. 

3. Now, let us suppose that we had been admitted, not 
only to contemplate the first act of the Divine manifestation, 
but to study that display in the whole of this first stage, 
distinguished as it must have been by elemental conflicts 
and volcanic explosions beyond all human conception, in 
what other light could we have regarded the phenomena 
than as signs or expressions of unknown power? We are 
not now to speak of the extent of the power to be inferred 
from the supposed scene — whether it be limited or unlimited. 
This view belongs to a subsequent part of the subject. At 
present we have to do only with the origination of matter 
and its planetary formation, as an expression of power. 
Every property, indeed, which was now brought to light, 
and every idea which can be supposed to have been truly 
suggested and represented, expressed a spiritual correspon- 
dence in the Divine Creator. Thus, the bare existence of 
the dependent substance, matter, pre-supposed the existence 
of the Independent and Infinite Substance. The laws which 
the planetary motions exhibited were His laws : and pro- 
claimed Him to be " the God of order." For, no being can 
impart that which he does not, in some sense, possess. 
But even the origination of the substance, and the prescrip- 
tion and maintenance of the laws, were preeminently de- 
monstrations of power. Here was the first objective effect 
— the origination of matter; irresistibly awakening the 
conviction of the First* Cause : the solemn utterance of the 
Deity on the subject of causation. Here was the universe 
of matter in motion, awakening the idea of force; it was 

the great practical lesson of the Deity on dynamics the 

doctrine of force producing motion. Every property of 
matter, every process by which its properties were deve- 



88 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



loped, every law which regulated these processes, every 
elementary particle and every revolving planet, was lecturing 
on the power which imparted that force. Nor could we 
have looked on the geological, planetary, and astral motions 
— the systems of motion; the complicated and boundless 
whirl of motion, in its multitude, variety, velocity, and 
extent, and have referred the whole to its origin and sup- 
port, without feeling the deep emphasis of the declaration, 
" Power belongeth unto God." 

II. 

The past brought forward. — One of our principles 
requires that the laws and results of the past be carried 
forwards; and that all that is characteristic in the lower 
steps of the j?rocess be carried up into the higher as far 
as it may subserve the ultimate end; or unless it be 
superseded by something analogous and superior in the 
higher and the future. (As we are only, at present, in 
the first stage of creation, it is obvious that our means of 
illustrating this law can be derived from nothing antece- 
dent; but are restricted to the earlier operations of this 
opening stage, as related to its later periods.) * 

Thus the law of attraction had collected matter around 
a centre. But it knows nothing of selection; holding the 
most heterogeneous masses together by the one common 
bond of gravitation. But having brought the particles of 
which the masses are composed so near together, another 
law — that of chemical affinity — appears. Two of the 
leading principles of chemical affinity are, that it is 
elective — passing by one particle to coalesce with an- 
other; and definite or constant, — each element uniting 
only with a certain fixed proportion of the element 
elected. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



89 



And, then, as chemical affinity is an advance on attrac- 
tion, crystallization is an advance on chemical affinity; 
and to this we are indebted for the granitic foundations of 
the earth, and all the ten thousand symmetrical forms 
which matter assumes. The first of these laws does not 
more prepare the way for the second, than the second for 
the third. For " bodies never crystallize but when their 
elements combine chemically ; and solid bodies which com- 
bine, when they do it most completely and exactly, also 
crystallize." 1 The matter which was merely held together 
by attraction — is sorted by chemical affinity — and, in 
crystallization, according to Berzelius, 2 it assumes its 
definite forms by a presupposed effort of the particles, 
not simply to unite, but to unite at certain points. But 
when the perfect crystal is formed, be it remarked, no law 
is repealed. It is no less in the all-grasping hand of 
attraction than it was at first. 

III. 

Progression. — One of our principles is, that the pro- 
duction of new effects, or the introduction of new laws, 
will be itself a law of the manifestation ; in other words, 
that the system will be progressive. Accordingly, when 
we reach the second stage of the process, we shall be able 
to show its advance as compared with the first. But as 
we are now merely entering on that first stage, we have 
nothing prior with which to compare it. We can only 
regard inorganic matter as something, an existence; and, 
as such, an advance on nothing, or on non-existence. In 
this light, we have simply to speak, first, of its constitu- 

1 Professor Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i 
p. 353. 

2 Essay on the Theory of Chemical Properties, p. 113. 



90 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



tion. But if, then, taking our stand at a period towards 
the close of this stage, we look back on the succession of 
changes which the material system is supposed to exhibit; 
we may speak also of progression in relation to these 
changes. 

1 . Over the physical constitution of every planet except 
our own, there hangs a deep obscurity. We may be able 
to weigh them, and to measure their volumes; but this is 
nearly the sum of our knowledge concerning them. Here, 
however, we find ourselves in contact with matter; it 
courts and compels our attention. To the observant mind 
the earth is a vast laboratory, in which the great processes 
of chemistry are in constant operation. Accordingly, the 
researches of science have brought to light between fifty 
and sixty forms or modifications of matter. Each of 
these, having hitherto resisted all endeavours to resolve 
them into any others, is termed a simple or undecom- 
pounded body. It is deemed probable that these bodies 
exist ultimately as atoms or indivisible particles. And 
easy as it may be to change, in any given instance, their 
state and appearance, they are, as .far as we know, inde- 
structible, 

2. The properties of matter have been divided into the 
primary and secondary. The first, including extension, 
impenetrability, and inertia, are such as belong to all kinds 
of matter, and without which we cannot conceive of its 
existence. The second, are those by which one kind of 
matter is distinguished from another. To this class belong 
light, heat, electricity, magnetism, molecular attraction, 
crystallization, and gravitation. 

3. These properties are developed, and operate accord- 
ing to laws. Viewed as merely existent, or in relation to 
space, matter presupposes a cause; viewed in its fixed 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



91 



relations, and its uniform successions, it exhibits laws, and 
therefore presupposes a lawgiver also. Thus, the most 
general law, with which we are at present acquainted, in 
the chemistry of Nature, is, that all the elementary bodies 
of which we have spoken, besides exhibiting what may be 
called preferences, enter into combination with each other, 
not arbitrarily, but only in fixed and definite proportions, 
by weight. So that having discovered a new elementary 
substance, and ascertained its chemical properties, we can 
foretel all the proportions in which it can enter into com- 
bination with all the others. Into some of these combina- 
tions, it may have never yet entered. But our knowledge 
of the law respecting it enables us to foresee what the 
Author of Nature has ordained that it shall do in such 
circumstances. The law governs our anticipations. " This 
use of the word law, has relation to us as understanding, 
rather than to the materials of which the universe consists 
as obeying, certain rules." Our mind discovers the mind 
of the Creator on the subject, even before the thing created 
has been made, in the particular case, to illustrate His 
will. And thus we obtain a view of the constitution of 
matter which effectually destroys the idea of its eternal 
and self-existent nature, " by giving to each of its atoms 
the essential characters, at once, of a manufactured article, 
and a subordinate agent.' 1 1 

4. The laws which regulate the changes and combina- 
tions of matter are brought to light by those changes 
themselves; such as solution, evaporation, rarefaction, de- 
composition, and combustion. The combinations of which 
the elementary substances are susceptible are endless. The 
principal forms, indeed, in which matter is found at the 
surface of the globe, are, the solid, the liquid, and the 
1 Sir J. Herschel on the Study of Nat. Phil, §§ 27, 28. 



92 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



gaseous. Into the composition of the solid earth there 
enter but eight or ten of the elementary substances in any 
large quantities. The water, which covers about three- 
fourths of the earth, is made up chiefly of two of these 
substances. And the atmosphere, which envelops both 
the earth and the water, is composed principally of two 
also. Indeed, there are grounds to believe that all in- 
organic substances unite by what is called the binary 
principle of combination; so that, however numerous 
the inorganic elements in union, in any instance, may be, 
they will be found to exhibit a progressive combination 
of pairs of substances, simple and compound. But, we 
repeat, the combinations of which the fifty or sixty elemen- 
tary bodies admit, are inconceivable ; like the letters of the 
alphabet, whose union in words and sentences admits of a 
diversity which no speaking or writing can ever exhaust. 
In the great laboratories of Nature, every description of 
chemical process is doubtless in activity, by which com- 
pounds of every kind are continually forming. By far the 
greater part of the rocky crust of the globe is made up of 
the fragments and powder of an incalculable variety of 
substances, mingled together in all degrees of proportion, 
and in such a manner as to defy separation. Nor can it 
be doubted that this round of change has been going on 
from the beginning. 

6. This brings us to remark, secondly, on that progres- 
sion in the state of the primitive earth, indicated by its 
mineral and chemical changes. If, for the sake of illus- 
tration, we adopt the nebular hypothesis, we shall admit 
that there was a time when the original planetary material 
was yet circulating in diffused and undetached masses 
around the sun. Then came the period when the planets, 
aggregating into separate bodies, occupied their respective 
orbits, and received their appropriate impulses; impulses 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



93 



involving phenomena so traceable to the hand of the Creator, 
that La Place has said, respecting a certain class of them, 
" It is infinity to unity that this is not the effect of chance." 1 
7. Or if, dispensing with the nebular hypothesis, we 
suppose the planetary bodies to have existed in their 
assigned orbits from the first, our imagination will yet 
take us back to the dateless period when the earth was 
passing from its vaporous form to that of incipient con- 
solidation. The phenomena exhibited by certain comets — 
especially by that of 1744, and by Halley's comet, on its 
last appearance in 1835 — have been supposed to justify the 
inference, that they are passing through a rapid suc- 
cession of formative processes. The saccular cooling down 
of the insufferably high temperature of the earth was 
followed by the formation of its shell, or the crystallization 
of its rocks; and this again, by their decomposition by 
mechanical and chemical means. Then came the period 
when, as the process of consolidation went on, the volcanic 
forces began the transformation of the older strata, and 
produced new and strange admixtures — gneiss, and mica 
slate, and granular limestone. — Every repetition of the 
process was followed by new combinations of old materials. 
The vast rifts and chasms in the crust of the earth closed 
up, or gave room for the elevation of mountain chains. 
The external signs of volcanic activity, if they did not 
contract in range, diminished in intensity. The central 
heat given off from the surface of the earth was greatly re- 
duced; life became possible; and the earth approached 
nearer and nearer to its present configuration. And thus, 
on each imaginary visit we make to the ancient earth, we 
find it in progress. The activity we behold is not in reality 
chaotic. Every change is only the result of a new chemical 

1 Syst., vol. ii. p. 366. 



94 



THE PRE- ADAMITE EARTH. 



combination, or the evolution of a new law, or the effect of 
a force newly come into operation. 

IV. 

Continuity. — According to another of our hypothetical 
laws, it may be expected that the manifestation, besides 
being progressive, will be continuous, or will be progressive 
bij being continuous, leaving no intervals of time, or of 
degree, but such as the modifying influence of other laws 
may require or account for. 

1. I am well aware of the metaphysical, as well as 
mathematical, universality which has been ascribed to the 
law of continuity ; and of the errors and evils arising from 
such an unqualified extension of its application. It was 
first applied to motion. Galileo 1 — referring the idea to 
Plato — affirmed that a body cannot pass from a state of 
rest to a certain degree of velocity without passing through 
all the intermediate degrees of motion. Liebnitz not only 
asserted the law in a more general form, 2 but carried it on 
from matter into the domain of mind ; adducing it to de- 
monstrate that the mind never ceases to think, even in 
sleep; and that death, in an absolute sense, is an impossi- 
bility. 3 Bonnet, in harmony with the maxim, Natura non 
operatur per solium, deduced from the law of continuity 
the conclusion — not indeed entirely unknown to philosophy 
before — that creation must consist of a scale of being, 
graduated downwards, without any saltus, or leap, from 
the Creator to the unorganized atom. And, subsequently, 
Helvetius applied the law to the progress of human im- 
provement. 4 Nor have writers since been wanting to press 
it still farther — to the illustration of that doctrine of 

1 Dialog, iii. 150; iv. 32. 2 Opera, i. 366. 3 lb. ii. 51. 
4 De l'Esprit, dis. iv. c. i. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



95 



necessity, which regards all the phenomena of human life 
as concatenated in a chain of iron mechanism. And even 
beyond this, it has been made to countenance a theory of 
development, according to which, ( an unbroken chain of 
gradually advanced organization has been evolved, from 
the crystal to the globule, and thence through the succes- 
sive stages of the polypus, the mollusk, the insect, the fish, 
the reptile, the bird, and the beast, up to the monkey and 
the man. 1 

2. But while, on the one hand, we avoid being led away 
by a dazzling generality, or being offended by a wild specu- 
lation, reckless alike of inductive facts and of moral conse- 
quences, let us not reject a principle which, when viewed 
in subservient relation to other principles, may prove to 
exist, and to have a place in the reality of things. Such a 
view I have expressed generally in the announcement at 
the head of this chapter. The actual modifications to 
which I believe it to be subjected will become apparent as 
we advance, from stage to stage, in our examination of its 
history. For the present, we have only to do with its 
application to unorganized matter. 

3. What was the primordial constitution or condition 
of the material universe? That it existed, at first, in a 
gaseous, diffused, and nebulous state, is only an hypothesis ; 
and an hypothesis, as has been remarked already, employed 
by Laplace, chiefly for the purpose of accounting for the 
motions of the solar system. And the fact that the space- 
penetrating power of Lord Eosse's telescope has resolved 
many of the supposed nebulae into starry systems, requires 
us to keep the hypothesis still at a wide distance from the 
realities of science. Indeed, it awakens the conviction that, 

1 Among such speculators may be named the author of the " Ves- 
tiges of the Natural History of Creation." 



96 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



in the present life, we can never arrive at certainty respect- 
ing the nebulous formation of systems ; for were our tele- 
scopic power to be multiplied a thousand-fold, so that we 
could resolve all the nebulas within the extended range of 
our present observation, we could not be sure that nebulous 
bodies did not exist beyond; and were our power of ob- 
servation to be then doubled, we should probably still 
behold in the horizon of space other nebulous appearances — 
realms of apparent star-dust — defying our utmost powers of 
resolution. All that we can hope for is an approximation 
to the truth. 

Now such an approximation, however far it may be from 
the actual attainment of the truth, does appear to be made 
by the nebular hypothesis. It harmonizes with what appears 
to be the formative processes, going on at present in certain 
cometary bodies. It hypothetically accounts for the mo- 
tions of the planetary bodies, as masses thrown off from the 
central body. It agrees with the geometrical form of the 
earth; its oblateness seeming to reveal the pristine fluidity 
of the body ; for such is the figure which it would assume 
as the consequence of a centrifugal force operating on a soft 
rotating mass. So that "its figure is its history;" for it 
indicates the mode of its origin as formed, under the con- 
ditions supposed, by gradual condensation. And " surely the 
vision of these unfathomable changes, of the solemn march 
of these majestic heavens from phase to phase, obediently 
fulfilling their awful destiny, will be lost on the heart of 
the adorer, unless it swells with that humility which is the 
best homage to the Supreme ! Between us and the Highest 
there is still vastness and mystery. To take wing beyond 
terrestrial precincts, perhaps, is not wholly forbidden, pro- 
vided we go with unsandaled feet, as if on holy ground. 
An order hanging tremblingly over nothingness, and of 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



97 



which every constituent fails not to beseech incessantly for 
a substance and substratum, in the idea of One who liveth 
for ever!" 1 

It has been affirmed, indeed, that the planets show " a 
progressive diminution in density from the one nearest the 
sun to that which is most distant;" that the motions of the 
solar system are " all in one direction — from west to east;" 
and that " the distances of the planets are curiously rela- 
tive." 2 But such continuity has no existence in nature. The 
density of the sun itself is only about a fourth of that of the 
earth. The densities of Yenus, Earth, and Mars, are nearly 
equal. While the density of Uranus is greater than that of 
Saturn, which is nearer the sun. The motion of the satel- 
lites of Uranus is retrograde — from east to west. And the 
relative distances of Mercury and Venus, and of the only 
satellites which admit of comparison, — those of Jupiter, 
Saturn, and Uranus, — from their primaries, exhibit no such 
uniform disposition as the statement implies. The colloca- 
tion and motions of the system cannot be referred to chance, 
because of its calculated uniformity ; nor to natural law, 
owing to its departures from uniformity. 

4. The law of continuity, in a modified form, has been 
applied, not only to the formation of material systems by 
passing from a fluid state through all the intermediate 
stages to that of the separation and solidification of their 
parts, but also to the subsequent history of the earth as one 
of these parts. Thus, Macculloch and others employed it to 
show that the rocks called trap rocks were not of sedimen- 
tary origin, but that, as they were found in all the inter- 
mediate stages between the igneous and that most nearly 
resembling the sedimentary form, they constitute a con- 

1 Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens. 
2 Vestiges of Creation, pp. 9, 10. 
H 



98 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



necting link between these two extremes, and form a, tran- 
sition series. ( Lyell has employed this principle of grada- 
tion, in opposition to the catastropkists, who suppose that 
the present state of the earth has been rapidly attained by 
violent changes and paroxysms, to show that all geological 
phenomena have been produced slowly, by causes which are 
still acting on the surface of the earth. According to this 
view, the present condition of our planet has been reached, 
not by the wide leaps of geological causes, but by their con- 
tinuous and gradational operation. 

5. The true view, probably, is that which reconciles both 
methods ; and which sees alike in the steady operation of 
laws leading, in the lapse of ages, to a geological catas- 
trophe, and in the catastrophe preparing the way for the 
resumed and steady operation of these laws, the uninter- 
rupted progress of the great design. Thus interpreted, 
science joins with Inspiration in asking, " Hast thou not 
known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the 
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, 
neither is weary?" No pause occurred through all the 
unmeasured periods of the geological process ; no revolution, 
which rendered it necessary to begin the work again. 

6. Descending even to the chemical properties of matter, 
we find a gradation in the nature of its elementary sub- 
stances. For convenience, indeed, these fifty or sixty sub- 
stances are divided into the metallic and the non-metallic. 
But there is no such a break in their characteristics as to 
justify this division. Arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, sele- 
nium, sulphur, constitute a connecting chain between the 
two series. 

V. 

Activity. — Another of our laws prepares us to find the 
universe of matter in a state of activity. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



99 



1. Accordingly, even the present repose of nature is only 
apparent. Not an atom, not a world is at rest. The sim- 
plest and minutest body is the subject of internal move- 
ments among the particles composing it. The interior of 
the earth is incessantly reacting on the exterior. Waves of 
motion pass through it. The bursting forth of hot springs, 
jets of steam, mud volcanoes, the upheaval of dome-shaped 
mountains, the appearance of new eruptive islands, the 
processes of rock formation, and the steady rising in its 
level of Sweden and other portions of the earth's surface, 
proclaim the constant action of an elastic vapour within. 
" Could we obtain daily news of the state of the whole of 
the earth's crust, we should, in all probability, become con- 
vinced that some point or another of its surface is cease- 
lessly shaken ; that there is uninterrupted reaction of the 
interior upon the exterior going on." 1 

By the operation of the various forces and modifications 
of the law of attraction, everything is changing its rela- 
tions or its place ; the granite itself yields ; and nature is 
kept in mutual action and reaction. " Electricity, as a 
chemical agent, may be considered not only as directly pro- 
ducing an infinite variety of changes, but, likewise, as in- 
fluencing almost all which take place. There are not two 
substances on the surface of the globe, that are not in dif- 
ferent electrical relations to each other ; and chemical 
attraction itself seems to be a peculiar form of the exhibi- 
tion of electrical attraction ; and wherever the atmosphere, 
or water, or any part of the surface of the earth, gains 
accumulated electricity of a different kind from the con- 
tiguous surfaces, the tendency of this electricity is to pro- 
duce new arrangements of the parts of the surfaces." 2 

1 Humboldt's Cosmos, p. 221. 
2 Sir Humphrey Davy's Consolations in Travel, p. 271. 
H 2 



100 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



All is in motion around and beyond the earth. Climate 
is the aggregate result of an unknown variety of agents 
and laws in constant play. The comparative repose of the 
complicated atmosphere depends on the incessant activity 
of its elements. The northern light is a magnetic storm — 
" a terrestrial activity raised to the pitch of a luminous 
phenomenon," — as lightning is evolved by an electrical 
storm. The fall of meteoric stones indicates the forces 
which are at work in the regions beyond our planet. A 
solitary star shooting across the blue vault of heaven tells 
us that the realms of space, calm and dreamless though 
they look, are realms of all-pervading, burning activity. 
But, at times, these " fiery tears " of the sky are seen to 
fall in showers and even streams; awakening the idea of an 
ever-circulating ring composed of myriads of luminous 
meteoric bodies, intersecting the orbit of the earth. The 
zodiacal light circles round the sun. The pulsations which 
tremble through the tail of a comet millions of miles in 
length, are probably only apparent, and produced by our 
atmosphere; but the nuclei of those comets " bind, by their 
attractive power, the very outermost particles of the tail 
that is streaming away at the distance of millions of miles 
from them. The motions of the double stars reveal the 
presence of the gravitating force, in the remotest regions of 
space. The solar system changes its place in the universe. 
Stars appear and disappear. The astral universe moves. ^ 
" If we imagine, as in a vision of the fancy," says Hum- 
boldt, " the acuteness of our senses preternaturally 
sharpened even to the extreme limit of telescopic vision, 
and incidents, which are separated by vast intervals of 
time, compressed into a day or an hour, everything like 
rest in spacial existence will forthwith disappear. We shall 
find the innumerable hosts of the fixed stars commoved in 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



101 



groups in different directions; nebulae drawing hither and 
thither, like cosmic clouds ; the milky way breaking up in 
particular parts, and its veil rent ; motion in every part of 
the vault of heaven." 

2. Now this ideal picture may help us to conceive of 
scenes which actually existed in the earlier stages of the 
material universe. If matter first appeared at the Omni- 
potent call, in nebulous masses, or if the heavenly bodies 
generally have passed through changes similar to those 
of our own planet, space must have been the theatre of 
dynamic activity and conflict beyond all our present 
powers of illustration. The crust of the earth tells its own 
eventful history. Time was when that solid but still thin 
crust ever quivered and undulated with the concussive 
forces within. Earthquakes shattered and rifted it, and 
opened, in all directions, volcanic communication between the 
molten interior and the surface. Through the yawning and 
abyss-like fissures which traversed it, mountain chains were 
uplifted; or else eruptive matters were poured forth from 
unknown depths — granite, porphyry, and basalt- — an ocean 
of rock. Sedimentary formations took place, through me- 
chanical and chemical action of an intensity incomparably 
greater than that which obtained in later eras. Subter- 
raneous forces repeatedly lifted these ever-thickening strata 
from the beds of the primitive waters, and allowed them to 
sink back again. But besides upheaving these masses, 
dislocating and rending them asunder, the eruptive rocks 
chemically transformed them into new species of rocks. 
In the great subterranean laboratory, the metamorphic 
process was ever proceeding on a scale immeasurable. And 
while this mighty action from within was penetrating 
outwardly and changing the nature of the older * strata, 
causes of equal potency without were maintaining the 



102 



THE PRE-ABAMITE EARTH. 



antagonist process of stratification. Vast beds of alluvium 
or drift were formed ; and inland lakes and pent-up seas, 
displaced by the upheaval of some new range of Alps 
or Apennines, rushed tumultuously down, displacing, in 
their turn, the mountain masses which obstructed their 
course, and hastened to resume their office of chemical de- 
position. 

The history of all these changes, we say, is legibly in- 
scribed in the earth itself. It is only by beholding the 
effects of such activity, as preserved from the morning of 
time, and still continued in our presence, that we know 
anything of the laws and properties of matter. A dead, 
motionless expanse of matter — if such a thing were pos- 
sible — would be a petrifying blank. It would reveal 
nothing of itself, and could say nothing of its Maker. But 
such an anomaly is unknown. Matter is full of the life of 
motion. Geology admits us into the laboratory of the past; 
and we behold, laid up for our inspection, the results of 
activities and powers, which it fills the mind with awe to 
imagine. We see that the great antagonist processes of 
sedimentation and crystallization have never paused. The 
endless admixtures of matter have maintained its forces in 
ever-varying play. And still its multifarious chemical 
diversity evokes the spirit of change and motion. Its par- 
ticles essay to arrange themselves in regular forms. In its 
ever-shifting restlessness, it discloses relations to light, to 
heat, and to the phenomena of electro-magnetism. In a 
word, its activity reveals its laws and develops its proper- 
ties ; and the record of these is the record of the Power 
which originated and keeps them all in motion. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



103 



VI. 

Development. — Here, also, according to another law, the 
same property which existed in the preceding, or inferior 
part of the stage, is not only carried up to the higher, 
but is there applied to a new and a higher purpose. 
Cohesion finds its complement in affinity ; and affinity 
finds its perfection in crystallization. This appears to be 
the highest state of mere inorganic matter. It involves the 
idea of numerical and developed symmetry. A body per- 
fectly crystallized, and exhibiting not merely geometrical 
symmetry of outward shape, but showing, by its cleavage, 
its transparency, its uniform and determinate optical pro- 
perties, that the same regularity pervades every portion of 
the mass, is an object for the production of which every 
great physical law and element of nature appears to have 
combined — suggesting to the imagination a beautiful pre- 
intimation of the coming flower. 

VII. 

Relations. — Another of our laws warrants us to expect 
that every object and event in the material universe will 
be found to be variously related. Accordingly, not an atom 
floats apart in isolation ; no change, however slight, is self- 
originated, or terminates with itself. 

1. Matter has relations internal and coexistent; — by the 
attraction of cohesion, for example, the particles of masses 
are kept together even when in violent motion. It has 
also relations external and coexistent; for, by gravitation, 
these masses themselves are bound to each other. " When 
we contemplate," says Sir John Herschel, " the constituents 
of the planetary system from the point of view which this 
relation affords us, it is no longer mere analogy which 



104 



THE PEE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



strikes us — no longer a general resemblance among tnem 5 
as individuals independent of each other, and circulating 
about the sun, each according to its own peculiar nature, 
and connected with it by its own peculiar tie. The re- 
semblance is now perceived to be a true family likeness ; 
they are bound up in one chain — interwoven in one web of 
mutual relation and harmonious agreement — subjected to 
one pervading influence, which extends from the centre to 
the farthest limits of that great system, of which all of 
them, the earth included, must henceforth be regarded as 
members." 1 

2. Matter has relations internal and successively ex- 
istent; chemical changes which take place in all inorganic 
bodies by motions which are not sensible, or at least not 
measurable. And it has relations external and succes- 
sively existent; and which proclaim themselves in the sen- 
sible and measurable motions of bodies. If, instead of 
confining myself to the bare illustration of the law now 
under consideration, it were my object to enlarge on the 
relations of inorganic nature scientifically regarded, 2 this 
would be the place for their introduction and methodical 
distribution ; for the coexistent phenomena of matter be- 
longs to natural history, or its relation to space; and its 
successively existent phenomena to natural philosophy, or 
its relation to time. 

3. Among the relations more obvious and interesting to 
a dweller on the earth, I would merely advert to the rela- 
tive quantities of land and sea, a relation which, as it was 
often changed in the early geological periods, must have 
produced corresponding changes upon the distribution of 
temperature; to the relation between the velocity of the 

1 Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 
2 See Mrs. Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, passim. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



105 



earth's rotation on its axis, and the degree of its mean 
temperature; and, to the geological relations between the 
interior and exterior of the earth — between the aqueous 
formations without, and the igneous processes within, by 
which rocky masses, granitic, porphyritic, and serpentine, 
forcing up their way from below, have burst through the 
sedimentary strata, hardening, changing, or variously com- 
mingling them. 

4. In fine, every object and event in the material uni- 
verse is all-related. Action and reaction, relations of 
coexistence and of sequence, are everywhere. In the pro- 
cess of generalization, science discovers that the relations 
of physical cause and effect are only secondary, or pheno- 
menal ; that they are properly medial, referring it back to 
something higher, more general and comprehensive still. 
The discovery of the law of attraction, enabled man to 
generalize many inferior laws, and to point out their sub- 
ordinate place and their relations. But does not attraction 
itself sustain a relation to something prior and more general 
still? To ascertain this is the office, and the present occu- 
pation of science. Man only knows — as a fact of reason — 
that, generalize the relations of matter as he may, there 
must be a point at which the whole coexistent series 
merges in the will of the great Originating Cause; and 
that, of the whole series of sequent relations, there is no 
point from which that agency is absent. The most abso- 
lute, comprehensive, and profound, of all the relations of 
matter, is that of dependence on the will of God. 

VIII. 

Order — As each of the physical laws to which we have 
adverted may be supposed to have come into operation, in 
the opening stage of creation, in succession ; so, according 



106 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



to another of our laws, in the same order' of succession they 
operate still. The crystalline state of the body may be de- 
stroyed, and yet the affinity and the gravitation remain ; the 
affinity may next be destroyed, and yet the gravitation re- 
main. Each prior law acts, in so far, independently of that 
which succeeds it ; each subsequent law is dependent on pre- 
existing laws, or is generated by them, and yet harmonizes with 
them, or subordinates them to itself. This is seen alike in 
the formation of the crystal, in the laboratory of the chemist, 
and in the granite masses which we find thrust up from 
the subterranean laboratory, through the crust of the earth. 

IX. 

Influence. — We may expect also that everything will 
bring in it, and u ith it, in its own capability of subserv- 
ing the end, a reason why all other things should be in- 
fluenced by it; a reason for the degree in which they 
should be influenced by it; and for the degree in which 
it, in its turn, should be influenced by everything else. 
The manner in which one law may be said to wait on 
another, we have seen. And the way (taking our example 
from gravitation) in which the lighter mass may be said to 
be subordinated to the heavier, is equally evident ; for 
matter attracts directly as the mass, and inversely as the 
squares of the distance. So that it does not follow, from 
the superior gravity of the earth, that the mote floating 
near the surface has no weight. The earth and a gossamer 
mutually attract each other, in the proportion of the mass 
of the earth to the mass of the gossamer, but only in that 
proportion. Every mass finds a place, and every action 
produces reaction ; but, for the same reason that the one is 
related to space at all, and the other to motion and time, 
the relation of each is proportioned, definite, regulated by 
law. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 107 

X. 

Subordination. — In harmony with the last named law, 
we are led by another of our principles to expect that every- 
thing subordinate in rank, though it may have been prior 
in its origin, will be subject to each higher object or law of 
creation. The facts adduced under the two laws imme- 
diately preceding will, it is presumed, sufficiently exemplify 
this principle. Illustrations of it, as applied to organic 
nature, will be found in their proper places, in the subse- 
quent parts of this treatise. 

XL 

Uniformity. — According to another of our principles, 
natural laws, though originally contingent, as opposed 
to absolutely necessary, are, as far as we know them, 
uniform and universal. " Not one faileth." 

I. The same law which forms the tear into a globule, 
produces the spherical form of the vast masses which 
people space. All the phenomena of the material system, 
as far as we know them, are reducible to mathematical laws. 
The rotation of the earth in twenty-four hours has not 
varied by the one-hundredth part of a second, since the 
age of Hipparchus — full two thousand years ago. Newton, 
indeed, inferred that the irregularities arising " from the 
mutual actions of comets and planets upon one another will 
be apt to increase, till the system wants a reformation." 1 
He left these perturbations to be calculated by his succes- 
sors. And Lagrange and Laplace, by a profound analysis, 
established the great principle that these variations are 
limited within certain periods, and that they alternate 
with periods of restoration. This has been called " the 
1 Optics, Query 31. 



108 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EA11TH. 



stability of the planetary system." And thus laws, origin- 
ally contingent on the will of God, are made, by the same 
will, permanent and universal. 

2. In affirming the in variableness of the laws of nature, 
then, it is to be distinctly understood; first, that this con- 
stancy involves no idea of eternal or independent existence, 
but the contrary. " The question, — what are the laws of 
nature? may be stated thus: — what are the fewest and 
simplest assumptions, which, being granted, the whole 
existing order of nature would result ? . . . When Kepler 
expressed the regularity which exists in the observed mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies, by the three general proposi- 
tions called his laws, he, in so doing, pointed out three 
simple volitions, by which, instead of a much greater 
number, it appeared that the whole scheme of the heavenly 
motions, so far as yet observed, might be conceived to 
have been produced." 1 Laws of nature, then, strictly 
speaking, is a phrase denoting only the uniformities 
existing among natural phenomena. To speak of these 
uniformities as if they were producing or regulating 
powers, is obviously absurd. They simply presuppose such 
powers or volitions, and are their manifestations. The 
first sequence was a thing produced, and proclaimed a 
producer. Secondly, the regularity of the laws of nature 
is quite compatible with the numerical increase of their 
manifestations, and even, conditionally, with the numerical 
increase of the volitions which they manifest. Unless the 
universe was flashed into existence, entire and complete, 
at once, the phenomena of nature must have become more 
complex and multiform, as time has advanced. Nor, 
thirdly, is the stability of nature inconsistent with appa- 
rent derangements and partial perturbations; for these 
1 Mills' System of Logic, vol. i. p. 384. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



109 



very perturbations are only manifestations of other created 
laws. Still, however, it must be admitted that they are of 
a kind to intimate, that all which is now understood as 
included in the stability of creation, may prove to be in- 
cluded in a still more comprehensive law of change. And 
hence, fourthly, the regularity of nature for unnumbered 
ages, is quite compatible with subsequent changes in its 
constitution. As its laws were originally contingent on 
the Divine appointment, so may be their continuance. Its 
present stability may be only provisional. And they who 
would abandon its phenomena to caprice, are but little more 
blameworthy than they who deem its laws for ever unalter- 
able. The laws of nature are uniform and universal, but 
only conditionally so. 

XII. 

Obligation. — One of our laws prepares us to expect that 
everything belonging to the great system of creation will 
be found, either promoting, or existing under an obliga- 
tion to promote, the great end, commensurate with its 
means, and relations. 

1. Of course, obligation can be predicated of inanimate 
matter only in a metaphorical sense, similar to that in 
which the same material nature is said to be governed by 
laws. Now laws, strictly speaking, are moral rules; 
" rules for the conscious actions of a person ; rules which, 
as a matter of possibility, we may obey or transgress; the 
latter event being combined, not with an impossibility, but 
with a penalty. But the Laws of Nature are something 
different from this; they are rules for that which things 
are to do and suffer; and this by no consciousness or will 
of theirs. They are rules describing the mode in which 
things do act; they are invariably obeyed; their trans- 



110 



THE PRE- ADAMITE EARTH. 



gression is not punished, it is excluded. The language of 
a moral law is, man shall not kill ; the language of a Law 
of Nature is, a stone will fall to the earth." Here, u all 
things are ordered by number, and weight, and measure. 
' God,' as was said by the ancients, ' works by geometry ;' 
the legislation of the material universe is necessarily de- 
livered in the language of mathematics ; the stars in their 
courses are regulated by the properties of conic sections, 
and the winds depend on arithmetical and geometrical pro- 
gressions of elasticity and pressure." 1 

2. As " the laws of nature," then, can only properly 
denote those rules by which God is pleased to regulate the 
phenomena of nature — rules revealed by the mode of His 
own working in nature; so, if obligation be predicated of 
nature, it can only denote the necessity which He is pleased 
to incur to operate uniformly in harmony with those rules, 
in order to the attainment of a proposed end. Thus, if 
the planetary system is to be maintained as it is, certain 
conditions must be fulfilled. With a perpetual tendency 
to fly off in a straight line from its solar centre, the phy- 
sical well-being or continuance of the system depends on 
its mechanical obedience to an opposite law. The stability 
and physical progress of the whole depend on the perfect 
balance of laws apparently opposed to each other ; and 
accordingly the balance is allowed to know no material 
disturbance. " For ever, Lord, thy word is settled in 
heaven : Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 
They continue this day according to thine ordinances : for 
all are thy servants." 2 

1 Professor Whewell's B. Treatise, chap. ii. 
2 Ps. cxix. 89—91. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



Ill 



XIII. 

Well-being. — By another of our laws we are led to 
expect that everything will enjoy an amount of good, or 
exhibit a degree of well-being, proportionate to the degree 
of its conformity to the laws of its being. Here, again, 
our language, in its present application, must be understood 
metaphorically. We are still in a domain in which obe- 
dience is only mechanical, and from which the possibility of 
transgression is excluded. 

It might, indeed, be remarked, that even here we meet 
with many things which are at once suggestive of an ideal 
physical perfection, and which yet exhibit departures from 
it — orbits elliptical, motions with perturbations, spheres 
bulging, depressed, and even the surface of such a sphere 
rising and sinking with Himalayan irregularities. But all 
this is according to prescribed law; and, as such, is a part 
of the material system. As far, therefore, as the principle 
now under consideration has any application here, it can 
relate only to the necessary changes and apparent conflicts 
which the material phenomena exhibit. The composition 
of a chemical body, for example, depends on the presence of 
certain conditions, a mechanical force disturbs or destroys 
one or more of these conditions, and the composition is at 
an end. Certain stars have disappeared from the firma- 
ment ; a fact, proclaiming, at least, that the laws on which 
their visibility depended are no longer in operation in rela- 
tion to them, but have been overborne by some counteract- 
ing power. Certain changes have been going on in the 
motions of the heavenly bodies from the first records of 
science; — the eccentricity of the earth's orbit has been 
diminishing ; the moon has been moving quicker and 
quicker; and the obliquity of the ecliptic becoming less. 



112 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



But, according to Laplace, the disturbance never passes a 
certain limit. The system contains a provision for com- 
plete restoration, so that the continuance of the system 
depends on the certainty of that provision, and on its 
mechanical conformity thereto. 1 

XIV. 

Analogy. — We may expect that the whole creation, as it 
is to answer a purpose, is arranged on a plan, and is 
therefore analogous in all its parts. Accordingly, relations 
of resemblance form the subject of the science of physical 
induction. " These are a grammar for the understanding 
of nature;" 2 the perception of such resemblances, and the 
conviction of their indefinite extension, form the ground of 
that antecedent probability of success which encourages the 
inductive inquirer to advance from the known to the un- 
known. Induction is not a random aggregation of in- 
stances, it involves the idea that nature is at unity with 
itself, and thus suggests the direction of his inquiries. 
Every addition to his knowledge is an additional clue to 
future discovery; "for nature is very consonant and con- 
formable to herself." 3 1. Now, here, in this opening stage 
of creation, analogies already abound ; numerical analogies, 
glimpses of which, from Pythagoras to Kepler, have dis- 
posed the loftiest minds to indulge in mysticism; and ana- 
logies, which, by the scientific use of general symbols, or 

1 Hence the apostrophe of the philosophic poet of nature in his Ode 
to Duty : 

" Stern lawgiver ! 

Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 

And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong." 

2 Bishop Berkely's Siris, p. 120. 

. 3 Newton; 31st Query at the end of Optics. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



113 



algebraic formulae, have led to discoveries 1 at which the dis- 
coverer himself was not aiming. Here, analogies of motion 
exist; suggesting to a Newton, a relation between the fall- 
ing of a stone to the earth and the circulation of the moon 
around the earth; the periodical return of comets; the 
union of the planetary system. Here are remarkable points 
of resemblance, if nothing more, between electricity, galva- 
nism, and magnetism ; striking parallels between light and 
sound; and, indeed, such resemblances as have not merely 
ever been the only legitimate guide of man in his interpre- 
tations of nature, but have enabled him to theorise in ad- 
vance of his facts — to announce the existence of a law after- 
wards to be discovered. Often, too, have they forced him 
from the arbitrary distributions of facts in which he had 
taken refuge, and have conducted him, as by a clue, to the 
natural classifications of the Creator himself. 

2. Here, in this primitive stage of the Divine Manifesta- 
tion, the Deity appears casting the moulds, sketching the 
outlines, and constituting the relations of future things. 
As the laws as yet in operation are few and simple, hints 
and shadows of the nobler things to come are all that can 
be expected. But, like a hieroglyphic language in its early 
state, every colour is a symbol, every form expressive of an 
idea, and, as in such a language too, to be subsequently 
employed to represent loftier truths not yet disclosed. 
Here — could we have looked on the scene with a prophetic 
eye — here, we might have said, the poet will find many of 
his most impressive images ; the reasoner his comparisons ; 
and hence the scientific theorist will derive his prolific 
suggestions. To these mountains Divine Faithfulness will 
point and say, "It is like the great mountains, and it 
reacheth to the heavens." Divine Immutability, pointing 

1 Professor Forbes on Polarization of Heat; Edinb. Trans., vol. xiii. 

I 



114 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



to this firmament as an image of its own stability, will 
declare, " If the heavens can pass away, then my covenant 
shall fail." And creating power, deriving a proof of omni- 
potence from the magnitude of the material universe, will 
simply affirm, " I the Lord made all these things." God 
is here sowing the seeds of things for all the future. 

3. Classification Laplace has said that " an intelli- 
gence, which, at a given instant, should know all the forces 
by which nature is urged, and the respective situation of 
the beings of which nature is composed; if, moreover, it 
were sufficiently comprehensive to subject these data to cal- 
culation, would include in the same formula, the movements 
of the largest bodies of the universe and those of the 
slightest atom. Nothing would be uncertain to such an 
intelligence, and the future, no less than the past, would be 
present to its eyes." And Leibnitz, before him, had gone 
still farther, representing the Eternal Mind as incessantly 
occupied in the solution of this problem — The state of one 
monad, or elementary atom, being given, to determine the 
state, past, present, and future, of the whole universe. 
Now, to conceive of truths physical and moral as being 
linked together mathematically, is alike repugnant to phi- 
losophy and religion. Nor is it less so to conceive even of 
the laws of mechanical force and motion as if they were 
superior to the Will which produced them, and were as 
necessarily binding on Him as on the phenomena of matter. 
We freely admit that all mechanical actions are thus open 
to the calculation of the Supreme Intelligence, for they are 
only the expressions of His own laws ; but we would always 
accompany the admission with the remarks that His know- 
ledge of material phenomena is independent of such cal- 
culations, and that the phenomena themselves never pass 
from His control. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



115 



4. Such a knowledge of the material universe is the un- 
attainable ideal of human science ; and every new discovery, 
however minute, seems to bring us a step nearer to it. 
But a perfect physical science would require a knowledge 
of all the properties of matter ; the processes which develop 
these properties ; the laws of these processes ; the number 
of elementary or undecompounded substances ; the combi- 
nations of which they admit; together with the original 
quantities and relative positions of each. Now, were we 
possessed of such knowledge, the principles of our theory 
would enable us to classify inorganic phenomena according 
to the method in which they have been arranged and 
employed in nature. For we should place them according to 
the order in which they come into operation; and according 
to their relative value, or to the nature and number of the 
properties tohich they include, and of the changes which 
they are capable of producing upon others; so that no 
property would be regarded as absolutely valueless. 

5. According to this method, 1. No inorganic character- 
istic is to be regarded as absolutely valueless. If minerals are 
to be classified, their external characters of hardness, specific 
gravity, colour, lustre, and crystalline forms, as well as 
their chemical constitution, are to be taken into the account. 
2. That property, or union of properties, is to be held as 
the most important which contributes most to distinguish 
and individualise the body to which it belongs, and is most 
capable of affecting naturally other things. 3. Such pro- 
perty cannot be arbitrarily assigned, but must be deter- 
mined by observation or experiment; for it may be the 
most unobvious and antecedently unexpected property. 
4. As even inorganic elements exhibit a great system of 
relations, an arrangement formed on one true principle will 

i 2 



116 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



not be found at variance with an arrangement formed on 
another true principle. 

True, much of the knowledge essential for such a classifi- 
cation, is still wanting; knowledge as essential as that of 
the laws of mechanics, and of the law of definite propor- 
tions, which we do possess. But not the less important is 
it that material phenomena should meantime be arranged, 
as far as we know them, according to the principles sug- 
gested; that a supposed elementary body, for example, 
should be regarded as such until it can be proved to be 
otherwise, since its power of resisting attempts to decompose 
it shows that it is a body of primary importance in the 
economy of nature. For, if our method of classification be 
correct, it cannot fail, by calling attention to those leading 
properties on which it is founded, to bring before us the 
effects resulting from their operation, and thus to increase 
our knowledge; which increase of knowledge again would, 
enable us to test and improve our classification. 

XV. 

Contingent — In harmony with another of our Laws, 
the constitution of the material system may be expected to 
be found contingent — i. e., resolvable into the sovereign 
will of the Divine Creator; and, as such, to be ascertain- 
able by observation and experiment alone. 

1 . For example, under the present collocation and motion 
of the solar system, or of any similar system, the simultaneous 
existence of every mass of matter composing it was mathe- 
matically necessary ; but this does not prove that the 
existing balance of motions might not be a change from 
some previous arrangement ; or that it might not have 
been an originally selected balance. The laws of motion 
cannot be shown to have been inevitable. No reason can 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



117 



be assigned why they must obtain. Gravitation, as it is, 
does not exist necessarily; in many respects it is a unique 
law, characterized by peculiar properties; and, for aught 
we can see, it might have been variously modified. " Its 
being found everywhere is necessary for its uses ; but this 
is so far from being a sufficient explanation of its existence, 
that it is an additional fact to be explained." 1 That pecu- 
liarity of the satellites, by which their motion of rotation is 
exactly equal to their motion of revolution, being calcu- 
lated, by Laplace, according to the laws of probability, it 
was found that there is more than 2000 to 1 that this is 
not the effect of chance. 2 

2. That the sun, which is the centre of attraction to our 
system, should be also the grand centre of illumination and 
of heat, cannot, as Newton pointed out, 3 be shown to be a 
necessary arrangement. There is no apparent connexion 
between its mass and its luminousness, its central position 
and its diffusion of heat. The direction of the satellites 
and of their primaries from west to east is not necessary ; 
the satellites of Uranus move from east to west. The mole- 
cular constitution of matter, with all its admirable and com- 
plicated adaptations to the economy of nature, is by no 
means a necessary condition of its existence. 4 Leaving to 
it, for example, hardness, and weight, and motion, we can 
yet conceive of the laws of these properties being very dif- 
ferent from what they now are, and can specify some of the 
consequences which would result from such difference. 5 

3. Why such and such natural agents were originated, 
and no others, " or why they are commingled in such and 

1 Macculloch's Proofs, &c, vol. i. c. 5. 

2 Letter I. to Bentley. "Works, vol. iv. p. 430. 

3 Syst. vol. ii. p. 327. 4 Prout's Bridgewater T., c. iii. 
5 Whewell's Bridgewater T., b. ii. c. c. 9, 10, 11. 



118 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



such a manner throughout space, is a question we cannot 
answer/' 1 by any study of the things themselves. As to the 
precise amount of matter which should exist, or the space 
which the whole should occupy — what but the Sovereign 
will of the Creator was to determine? In a word, both the 
internal and external constitution of the material universe, 
the properties of its particles, and the distribution of its 
masses, the nature of its laws and the magnitudes (some- 
times called arbitrary) which those laws regulate, were 
alike contingent on the Divine appointment. No being 
existed to challenge his right. As He was the absolute 
originator, so He was the sole Disposer of the whole. 

4. Here, then, was scope for the exercise of the same 
" good pleasure'' on which the whole purpose of the Divine 
manifestation had depended. And thus the creation, while 
it presupposes those necessary truths which are the condi- 
tion of its existence, exhibits the Creator meting out all its 
internal arrangements with the line and balance of His 
Sovereign appointment. 

XVI. 

Ultimata. — The mention of the dependence of matter 
introduces another law — the law of ultimate facts. 

1. By an ultimate fact is meant a truth, or an event, 
not derivative from anything of the same kind, and which, 
by necessity of nature, admits of no physical solution. And 
the difference between necessary truths and ultimate facts is, 
that the former exist independently of any external mani- 
festation, and, therefore, antecedently to creation; the 
latter are the facts which, to our view, touch that necessary 
truth, or stand next to it, being immediately related to it, 
and dependent on it. The former is unconditional; the 
1 Mills' Logic, vol. i. p. 417. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



119 



latter are conditional on the former : for, as we have seen 
already, we cannot conceive of body without space ; of suc- 
cession or motion without time; nor of either body or 
motion without a causal Power. Space, is the condition of 
body ; time, of motion ; while Power is not only the condi- 
tion, but also the cause, of both. And the ultimate truths 
belonging to this first stage of creation respect the relation 
of the Divine power to matter as connected both with space 
and with time. Here all objective mystery begins. 

2. In the order of nature, matter is to be viewed, first, 
contemporaneously in its relation to space : — how came it 
really and objectively to be? what relation did the Divine 
power bear to its creation? We may, or may not, be able 
to resolve it all into its primordial elements ; — but how 
came these elements themselves to exist, and what is their 
nature? Having found, for instance, that a salt is com- 
posed of an acid and an alkali, and having decomposed the 
alkali into oxygen and a metallic base, we seem to have 
reached an impassable barrier — an ultimate fact. Beyond 
these elements we cannot go. They include nothing in 
themselves to account for their own organization. Could 
we have looked on them in the first moment of their exist- 
ence, we should have seen intuitively, that the only ground 
of their existence must be the will of God. 

3. But if the first moment of the existence of the material 
universe would have awakened the question, how comes it 
to be? — the second moment would have brought the cor- 
responding question, how comes it to continue in being? 
The first moment revealed a creation ; the second moment 
revealed a providence, or the causing of the created mate- 
rial to continue. If the first exhibited it in relation to 
space, as coexistent, the second exhibited it in relation to 
time, as successively existent — for all its parts are in 



120 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



motion. Attraction, repulsion, transformation, change x>f 
physical relations, are constant and universal. What is the 
relation of the Divine power to the forces employed in all 
this motion ? Here we come to ultimate laws. When we 
have traced back the order in which the sequences in any 
particular class of natural phenomena occur, till we have 
reached the highest and the last of the series — that which, 
in the order of time, is presupposed by all the rest — we 
have reached our physical ultimatum. And we are con- 
scious of the instinctive conviction that the continuance of 
the world, no less than its origination, has its ground in the 
will of God. 

4. But does the Divine will act in this case by a primary 
appointment only, or does it act also by an ever-present 
agency ? Is motion only the prolonged result of an original 
impulse : or is the power which was put forth in the great 
original act, directly operative still ? There are those who 
entertain the former opinion. And although they may 
sometimes have been charged with thus magnifying second 
causes to the oblivion of the First Cause — and often, it is 
to be deplored, with justice — not only is the opinion in 
question not incompatible with true piety, no doubt piety 
has, in some instances, erroneously led to its adoption. I 
speak not now, of course, of any theory such as that 
propounded in the " Vestiges of the Natural History of 
Creation;" and which represents the universe in its present 
state as the result of a gradual unfolding of an original 
germ, or the natural development of a principle, without 
any subsequent creative interposition. This is to render 
creation an independent existence. After the primary act, 
according to this view, the Creator might have ceased to be 
— as far as the created universe was concerned. Rejoicing 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



121 



in its own independence, it could proceed, ad eternitatem, 
without him. 1 

5. Now, not only in opposition to such a theory, but even 
to that qualified view which, while it admits of creative 
interpositions, yet regards the sequences of nature as ascri- 
bable only to the action of matter upon matter, according 
to a primary appointment — in opposition to such a view, 
we regard these sequences as owing to the constant concur- 
rence of the Divine will. We believe that the same power 
which originated matter with all its properties, its selected 
quantities, and combinations, maintains it in operation, 
not indeed by separate acts of power in each particular 
case, but by a constant regular volition acting according to 
conditionally established laws. And we believe that this 
ever-present concurrence of the physical agency of the 
Deity with material phenomena differs, according to the 
differing nature of the properties and laws which they have, 
from the first, exhibited. 

6. With any of the moral objections which may be sup- 
posed to lie against this view, we have not now to do; 
except to remark that any hypothesis which essays to 
remove them from pressing against Providence, only 
transfers and leaves them to press equally against an 
original creation. As to the physical objections, it cannot 
be justly alleged that the regularity of the mechanism 
of nature is opposed to our view : 2 we recognise that 

1 And as Newton affirms in his Scholium, at the end of the Principia: 
" Deus sine dominio, providentia, et causis finalibus, nihil aliud est 
quam Fatum et Natura." 

2 It may be worth the consideration of those who regard the universe 
as a self-acting machine — of which we have no true analogy — whether 
they are not misled by confounding regularity with explanation — law 
with cause — a perceived uniformity of sequence with the manner or 



122 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



regularity as much as the other party ; we even rely on it 
in evidence of the truth of our views, Order is natural 
♦ to Him; He needs not to aim at it. The only question 
between us is, does the power which that regularity evinces, 
belong, at present, to the machine or to its Maker? 

Nor does our view affect the instrumentality of what is 
properly meant by second causes. The subordination of the 
parts of the great mechanism, is still supposable to any ex- 
tent ; but their orderly operation is viewed as always in de- 
pendence on the continuance of the Divine will to that effect. 
The sequences of nature, however derivative and particular ; 
and the laws of nature, however general; are the laws 
which He, in His wisdom, is pleased to prescribe to His 
own agency. 1 

7. But, is it worthy of God — it is sometimes asked — to 
perform certain creating and sustaining acts of an inferior 
description? Is it not beneath the Divine dignity? Thus, 

principle of the sequence. " What is called explaining one law of nature 
by another, is but substituting one mystery for another; and does 
nothing to render the general course of nature other than mysterious: 
we can no more assign a why for the more extensive laws than for the 
partial ones. The explanation may substitute a mystery which has 
become familiar, and has grown to seem not mysterious, for one which is 
still strange. And this is the meaning of explanation in common par- 
lance. . . . The laws thus explained or resolved, are sometimes said to 
be accounted for ; but the expression is incorrect, if taken to mean 
anything more than what has been already stated." — Mills' Logic , 
vol. i. pp. 559, 560. Yet the ordinary fallacy is, that to discover the 
law of a sequence is to discover its cause; and that having discovered 
the natural or proximate cause, no other cause need be thought of ; that 
the discoverer has taken it out of the hands of God and of mystery at 
the same time; whereas, not only is the law where it was before in re- 
lation to the Lawgiver, but the mystery is often numerically doubled — 
the discovery being the unveiling of a new mystery. 

1 Sir John Herschel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philoso- 
phy, p. 37. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 123 

the author before alluded to, represents it as " a most incon- 
ceivably paltry exercise" 1 of the power of God to create 
one of the lower species. But, to account for the exist- 
ence of the said species by ascribing it to the evolution of 
a natural law, is only an adjournment of the difficulty. 
For, unless it be supposed that in originating that natural 
law, the Deity was putting a power into operation of which 
he knew not the effects, the production of that species must 
have been originally contemplated by Him as one of its 
effects ; so that the charge of paltriness would be only car- 
ried back from the creation of the animal, to the prior 
origination of the supposed law which produced it. 2 Be- 
sides,(who shall undertake to graduate a scale of great and 
little things for the Deity ? This is to " anthropomorphize" 3 
God; to assimilate Him to a poor earthly potentate who 
has to save his artificial dignity by a constant compliance 
with etiquette; who retains caste not so much by doing, as 
by not doing. In comparison with infinite greatness, every- 
thing is little; the entire creation — not any of its parts 
merely — infinitely little. It is only as those parts belong to 

1 Vestiges, &c., p. 164. Third Edit. 
2 So when others, instead of dispassionately arguing the question, 
aim to stigmatise the doctrine of creative interpositions by affirming 
that it represents the Creator as "mending" His own work, they 
forget that the atheist may fasten the same epithet on their own view 
of the subject. For if the creation exhibits change and progress, it 
matters not to him whether the change and progress, (and this is all 
that is meant by the " mending,") be said to be effected by the natural 
operation of a law originally appointed by the Creator, or by the 
direct agency of the Lawgiver; whether it be mended, or be self- 
mending. " Why," he will ask, " should any mending, change, or 
progress be necessary ? Even if it take place according to natural 
law, still, as you profess to believe that law to have been of Divine 
appointment, you only remove the difficulty involved, from the God of 
providence to the God of creation." 

3 Vestiges, &c, p. 147. 



124 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



an all-comprehending plan, that their existence is to be 
accounted for. Apart from that plan, the noblest parts of 
the universe, and even the universe as a whole, is utterly 
insignificant. But viewed as an integral part of that plan, 
nothing is insignificant. It is an all-related part of a system 
which hallows all whicli it encloses, and ennobles all that it 
employs. 

8. The preceding objection belongs to an anthropomor- 
phizing view of the Divine dignity. There is another, 
which springs from a similar view of the Divine ability, 
viewed in analogy with the powers of a human artist. It 
expresses itself thus — the theory of God's perpetual agency 
does not appear to afford such exalted views of the Divine 
power and skill as that which represents him as originating 
a law, or creating a vast mechanism, capable of self-activity 
and development, for as long a period as he might choose to 
keep aloof from it. Hence, we are assured, that " it is the 
narrowest of all views of the Deity, and characteristic of a 
humble class of intellects, to suppose him constantly acting 
in particular ways for particular occasions." 1 We reply, 
that such a supposition is a figment of the author's own, if 
(as it would appear) he imagines, that there is no alter- 
native between it and his own theory. Our own view 
expressly provides against both. We will add, that to suppose 
the Deity not capable of acting in the manner described, 
if He please, and of acting thus without distraction, "is 
the narrowest of all views respecting Him, and character- 
istic of a humble class of intellects." And yet the only 
ground which is generally assigned for the theory which 
exempts him from such action is that of exonerating Om- 
nipotence from labour. Hence, it is thought to be a very 
unfitting " mode of exercise for creative intelligence, that 
1 Vestiges, &c., p. 160. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



125 



it should be constantly moving from one sphere to an- 
other." 1 Here the anthropomorphism of the reasoning 
comes out. When man has constructed a, so-called, 2 self- 
acting machine, that which constitutes the triumph of his 
powers is, that he should have so built it as to be himself 
left at liberty to be absent from it, and to turn his atten- 
tion to other objects. He, a being of limited power, has 
constructed a machine which does not limit or detain that 
power, but which acts independently of it, Whereas, in 
this very particular, the analogy is totally inapplicable to 
the divine Creator. His presence with one object, or in 
one place, does not imply his absence from another ; for his 
energy is omnipresent. 

Besides which, is not our admiration, in the case sup- 
posed, excited rather by the wondrous mechanism than by 
the mechanist? At all events, would not our estimation 
of his powers be greatly enhanced, if, after examining the 

1 Vestiges, &c, p. 165. 
2 There is an inconsistency, " with which all those philosophers are 
justly chargeable, who imagine that, by likening the universe to a ma- 
chine, they get rid of the necessity of admitting the constant agency of 

powers essentially different from the known qualities of matter 

The falseness of the analogy appears from this, that the moving force 
in every machine is some natural power, such as gravity or elasticity: 
and, consequently, the very idea of mechanism assumes the existence 
of those active powers, of which it is the professed object of a mecha- 
nical theory of the universe to give an explanation." — Stewart's Prel. 
Diss, to the En. Brit., p. 125. Indeed, the mechanical theory cannot, 
in the nature of things, find any analogy in the universe. For man 
originates no motion whatever. In his most complicated machinery, 
he merely avails himself of pre-existing forces — properties which ex- 
isted before he came into being. Now, the theory requires support 
from some analogy to these very properties which it assumes to be 
self-sustaining. But as the supposed parallelism of a piece of human 
mechanism fails, it can nowhere be found. To my own mind, the 
idea of a created universe existing in absolute independence of the 
Divine agency, is simply inconceivable. 



126 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



machine which was supposed to work alone, we discovered 
that he, though distant from it, held secret lines of 
communication within it; that these lines, on which its 
activity depended, were never out of his hand, by night or 
by day ; and yet that, without any apparent limitation of 
his powers, he was occupied in the construction and move- 
ment of a similar machine elsewhere. Wonderful as we 
should deem the mechanism, we should regard the mecha- 
nist as more wonderful still. And the very feeling we are 
conscious of, of the impossibility of any human power being 
able to accomplish such a thing, is so much homage to the 
Divine power which can effect it. If the god of Epicurus 
had made the world, he would, doubtless, have retired 
from the cares and painstaking of sustaining and control- 
ling it; that is to say, he would have acted the part of a 
great human creator. To be able, on the contrary, to 
originate the universe, and then to pervade it by an ever- 
present agency, unconscious of effort, is a perfection so 
far beyond our ordinary range of thought, so entirely 
unique and divine, that the mind does not easily reach the 
conception. 

9. If, however, it be said, that the theory which leaves 
the universe to work entirely alone, enhances our views of 
the skill of the Creator, much more than that which sup- 
poses His ever-present and all-pervading agency, it seems 
sufficient to reply, first, that the display of His skill may 
not be, (as the hypothesis supposes) the only, or even the 
highest, end aimed at in creation ; and if it be not, the 
remark loses its force. But, secondly, while the skill of the 
Creator is sufficiently obvious, whichever view be taken of 
the present subject, it is clear also that the Divine skill has 
been actually employed, not for itself, but in subserviency 
to ulterior aims. Who can question, for example, the 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



127 



ability of the Creator to have complicated the proofs of 
his skill in the operations of nature much more than He 
has actually done ? or to have brought the world into exist- 
ence at first in a more advanced state than He appears to 
have done ? The reason why He did not, must then have 
related to an end or ends, distinct from the mere exhibition 
of His creative skill. And, thirdly, we can easily conceive 
of such ends, and shall have hereafter to enlarge on them ; 
ends analogous to those, for example, attained by the 
family constitution, in which He has been pleased to 
arrange that the children shall not be born into a state of 
independence, (which they might deem the highest display 
of Divine skill) but that they shall owe their best advan- 
tages to the benevolent provision which keeps them depen- 
dent for years on their parents. 

10. We entertain the belief, then, of the pervading 
agency of the Divine Being throughout the material 
universe, not in exclusion of, but in addition to, the doc- 
trine of primary appointment; for He does that which He 
decrees. We believe this, because there are no valid ob- 
jections to be urged against the view which do not lie 
equally against the theory of development by natural law ; 
because the idea of an entirely self-sustaining universe is 
destitute of all true analogy^ because we cannot conceive 
of a self-sustained universe, any more than we can of 
a self-originated creation — dependence is its character- 
istic in relation to time, as much so as in its relation to 
space; and because (if the question is to be argued on the 
ground of what may be most honourable to the Divine per- 
fections) we deem the view which represents the material 
universe as directly dependent on the Divine agency, more 
exalting to God than that which views the universe as 
released from such dependence ; not to say that the reason- 



128 



THE PR E-AD AMITE EARTH. 



ing which " compliments" Him out of the material universe 
not unfrequently ends in excluding Him from the throne 
of His moral government. 

Other reasons in corroboration of this view will come to 
light as we proceed. For the present, it may suffice to 
suggest to the believer in Divine revelation, first, that the 
opposite view, if it does not necessarily deny the existence 
of the Divine attributes, denies, at least, their objective 
exercise — representing the Omniscient as if he saw nothing, 
the Omnipresent as if he were universally absent, and the 
Omnipotent as doing nothing. And, secondly, it seems 
impossible to harmonize such an abandonment of the uni- 
verse to natural laws, with the testimony of Scripture, and 
the evidence of geology, to successive creations. 

11. If to this it is replied that the Divine Being is not 
supposed to detach himself entirely from the universe, 
that he is yet regarded as being u virtually present in the 
natural world by a providential inspection and superin- 
tendence" 1 of it, we can only add, that this seems to fall 
very little, if anything, short of the ever-present and per- 
vading agency which we advocate. At least, the argu- 
ments which would establish such a relation of the Deity 
to the material universe, as amounts to a virtual presence 
with it, a constant inspection and actual superintendence 
of it, and the necessity for such an agency, would go far to 
establish the sustaining and pervading nature of that 
agency. And this apparently near approach to the admis- 
sion of such an agency, in the very act of denying it — a 

1 Jones's Philosophy, quoted in a note in Tateham's " Chart and 
Scale of Truth;" one of the Bampton Lectures, vol. i. p. 169. So 
also Boyle, while comparing the universe to a vast machine, yet speaks 
of it as ''managed by certain laws of motion, and upheld by His ordi- 
nary and general concourse" — Inquiry into the Vulgar Notion of 
Nature. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



129 



not unfrequent thing — only shows the difficulty of saying 
how much more or less relatively we affirm in a proposition 
of our own, unless we knew precisely how much is denied 
in the contrary position of another. 

12. Before proceeding to the next law, let me recal 
attention to the important distinction which has now been 
disclosed to us, between the relations of matter to space 
and to time. One important distinction is disclosed to 
us under the law relating to necessary truth — the distinc- 
tion between the subjective and the objective ; the infinite 
mind and the created universe; the latter presupposing 
the former, having existed potentially in the mind of God 
before it existed objectively as a purpose realized. Here, we 
are called to regard the twofold relation which He sustains 
to it, as it is viewed in connexion with space and time. 
As it is regarded contemporaneously, or irrespective of 
time, and in relation only to space, He is its creator; but 
as it is viewed in relation, not only to space but to time, or 
as successively existent, He is its preserver. Creation in- 
troduces us to a universe of objects; Providence to a uni- 
verse of objects and events. By the first originating act, 
matter was made to take possession of space, as an objective 
reality; a moment after, and it had taken possession of 
time, as objective and successive. 

13. But if this distinction be well founded, it follows 
that the properties and the distribution of matter, as con- 
stituted by creation, are distinguishable from the laws of 
matter as continued by Providence. The constitution of 
matter placed it in relation to space; the sequences of 
matter, in relation to time. True, we may know nothing 
of the properties but by the operation of the laws ; nothing 
of the constitution of matter as created, except as disclosed 
by the sequences of matter as continued; just as the con- 

K 



130 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



stitution of the mind may be known only as manifested in 
its operations. But as the laws or operations of the mind 
presuppose its constitution, so the sequences of matter pre- 
suppose the properties or constitution originally given to it. 

XVII. 

Necessary truth. — The existence and motion of the 
material masses imply the existence of necessary truth. 
Supposing that we had received and sustained the sublime 
and complicated impressions derivable from the contempla- 
tion of the new-made universe, what would have been the 
legitimate operations and consequent state of our minds ? 

1. We could not have beheld the unorganized masses, 
either as coming, or as come, into existence, without regard- 
ing the change as an effect. Nor could we have come into 
contact with a small portion of one of these masses, and 
have put it into motion by an act of muscular exertion, 
without regarding the cause of all the motion we saw around 
us as something more than a mere antecedent to it; as a 
necessary connexion or power — an efficacy which has had 
a real operation. 

We could not have contemplated these masses without 
perceiving that they were things distinct from ourselves, 
without us, external to us : but, our apprehending them as 
without us, takes for granted their existence in space. 
We could not, by sight, and touch, and muscular extension, 
have ascertained that they had figure, without perceiving 
their relations to space; for the line of one dimension, 
the plane of two, and the solid body of three dimensions, are 
all modifications of the conception of space. We could not 
have thought of space as the negation of all these things; 
as existing only that other things may exist in it ; or as a 
condition without which the masses themselves could not 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



131 



exist ; without regarding it as infinite in all its dimensions, 
and as indestructible. We could not have ascertained their 
figure, and externality, and solidity, without feeling that 
they existed independently of us, so that no act of our mind 
could make or destroy them. And as we should have per- 
ceived that these properties and spacial relations of the 
masses depended not on our perception of them, so we 
should have perceived that if these things themselves had 
never existed, the portions of space which they now occupy, 
would have borne the same relations to infinite space which 
the things themselves actually do — i. e., that the two sides of 
a triangle would have been greater than the third, even if 
there had never been a material triangle. 

3. We could not have thought of the creation as new, 
or in connexion with its former non-existence, or have 
marked its progressiveness, without being conscious of a 
sense of successiveness, or of time. Nor could we have 
reflected on time, as that in which both our perceptions and 
their objects exist, without feeling that time itself is inde- 
pendent of both. The first stage of creation, then, as far 
as it exhibited the existence of matter in motion, involved, 
at least, three necessary truths. For we cannot conceive 
of succession, without time ; of body, without space ; nor 
of effect, without the power which caused it — i. e., a Being 
or Substance potential to the effect produced. Time, space, 
power, are necessary ideas. All phenomena pre suppose 
them ; are not intelligible without them. They themselves 
cannot be resolved into anything antecedent ; have no con- 
ceivable conditions; but exist independently, and as the 
conditions of everything else. 

4. Here, an important distinction comes to light. While 
space is only the condition of body, and time of motion, 
power, as we have implied, is not only the condition, but also 

K 2 



132 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



the cause of both. As condition, it could not but be ; as 
cause, its existence was contingent on the Divine will. As 
condition, it was from eternity ; as cause, it commenced the 
succession of measurable time. As condition, it is a pro- 
perty of the infinite Substance — an attribute of the Divine 
Nature; as cause, it is the objective manifestation of that 
property, the creating exercise of that attribute. As con- 
dition, its activity from eternity was only subjective ; as 
cause, its activity becomes objective also. Here, then, we 
have the subjective and the objective ; for that which was 
possible has become real. What must that be, to which the 
real has always been possible ? and what is that which, 
having been only possible, has now become real ? What are 
the relations between the two? or, how do they co-exist? 
This is the domain of ontology — the doctrine which relates 
to the Substance of being. 

XVIII. 

Scecular Change. — But will this stage of the Divine 
operations be sooner or later succeeded by another ? For, 
according to one of our principles, the production of new 
effects, or the introduction of new laws, will be itself a law 
of the manifestation. For, were it to terminate at any 
given point, the proof of the Divine all-sufficiency for 
unlimited manifestation would terminate with it. Besides 
which, all-sufficiency, from its very nature, requires infinity 
and eternity in which to be developed ; for it implies suf- 
ficiency for nothing less than these. If, then, the develop- 
ment of the Great Purpose be in its very nature progressive, 
this is only saying that the process must ever be kept 
open to receive the addition of new effects, or the super- 
induction of new laws. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



133 



1. Now, however, a new — an analogical ground for ex- 
pecting an additional stage in the Divine operations has 
come to light. For, as we have seen, the activity of the 
primitive material universe has itself been the activity of 
progression. Nor can we imagine ourselves surveying this 
activity of progression, without more than suspecting that 
we are looking on the successive steps of a scene prepara- 
tory for a new stage of the Divine Plan. All that we 
behold — complicated and stupendous as it is — is only the 
play of inorganic matter, unconscious of its own existence 
and activity. The Divine Purpose and the Divine pro- 
cedure alike combine to point us to the future. 

2. The preceding section reminds us of the great prin- 
ciple that the law of ever-enlarging manifestation to which 
it relates is itself regulated by a law determining the time 
and manner of each successive stage of the advancing 
process. In the original statement of this law, I remarked, 
that the time for this change in any given department of 
the Divine Manifestation, will of course be determined in a 
manner, and for a reason, differing with the particular 
nature and design of the department : — first, by each 
existing stage passing through all the combinations and 
changes of which it admits, before another begins; or, 
second, by its existing long enough to show that it involves 
all the necessary possibilities for answering such and such 
ends, if its continuance permitted; or, third, until it has 
sufficiently taught the specific truth, and attained the proxi- 
mate and particular end for which it was originated. 

But, whatever the particular reason for determining the 
period of change may be, it is evident that the law of the 
time and the occasion for every change must harmonize with 
the Great End of the whole — the manifestation of the 
Divine All-sufficiency. For, were a stage of the manifesta- 



134 



THE PUE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



tion to be recalled or replaced a moment before it had, in 
some way^ demonstrated the all- sufficiency of God for that 
particular stage, the Great Purpose would not be answered. 

From which it follows that no such change or interposi- 
tion takes place arbitrarily, but, as the laws of progression, 
and of the end, require it. 

And that the length of the time which may be allowed 
to elapse, after the introduction of one law or change, before 
the introduction of another, so far from growing into an 
objection against any further addition or change, becomes, 
in a progressive system, an ever-increasing ground for 
expecting it. 

3. Even those who advocate the natural-development 
hypothesis, cannot consistently entertain any valid objec- 
tion against this law. For, even if the great changes which 
have marked the progress of the material universe have 
been, as they imagine, only the development of a law, or 
laws, originally impressed on matter, all these changes must 
have been foreseen — must have been actually included in 
the plan of the glorious Deity. But if their occurrence 
was designed, for the same reason that they were designed 
to occur at all, there must have been a right time for their 
occurrence. And this is the substance of the law now 
under consideration. 

4. What was it, then, which made the time thus divinely 
selected, the appropriate time for a distinct advance in the 
great process? We have said that "no such change takes 
place arbitrarily ; but, as the laws of progression and of the 
end require it." Here, then, is a two-fold law to be satis- 
fied. 

Now, the requirement of the law of progression, in the 
present instance, is obvious ; — the event declared it. The 
inorganic world was designed by the Divine Creator to be- 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



135 



come the scene of organic forms — of life. When, therefore, 
the earth had passed through such foreseen changes, and 
had attained to such a condition, as adapted it to the exist- 
ence of organic life, the law of progression might be ex- 
pected, in harmony with the Divine Plan, to receive a new 
illustration. " The proximate end of the origination of 
this earth had been attained." It was in a state to become 
the means for the attainment of another particular end, if 
the Divine Creator chose so to employ it. 

5. But is this the appropriate time for the change, 
according to the law of the end? That is to say, admit- 
ting that the design of the creation and maintenance of the 
material universe is to manifest the Divine Omnipotence, 
is that ultimate end, in any sense, attained? Evidently, 
the first of the conditions of its attainment, which I have 
specified, is not fulfilled; — inorganic matter has not "passed 
through all the combinations and changes of which it 
admits." Vast and complicated as they have been, they 
are still in progress. And as long as the earth continues, 
these changes will go on multiplying. And who shall say 
whether, before the material svstem reaches a close, it will 
not have passed through all the great changes and com- 
binations of which it admits? If, as the existence of a 
resisting medium implies, the period will come — immea- 
surably distant in the depths of futurity as it may be — 
when the planetary system, in its present form, will come 
to an end, who shall say that by that inconceivably remote 
period, the condition in question may not be literally ful- 
filled? Possibly, the limit of planetary existence, and the 
fulfilment of this condition are destined to coincide. The 
proof of the Divine All-sufficiency, for upholding the worlds 
which He had made, through all the great combinations and 
changes of which they severally admitted, would then be 



136 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



historically worked out and completed. Possibly, too, this 
awful crisis of the material system will arrive, only to be 
followed by its reconstruction in other forms, and for other 
ends, and for other immeasurable cycles. Solemn as these 
conceptions are, doubtless, something analogous, and as 
solemn, awaits our contemplation in. relation to the material 
system, in the distant future. 

6. But if the first of the conditions specified had not, — 
and, from the nature of the Divine Plan, could not have 
been complied with, at the time of the change, had the 
second condition been fulfilled? That is, were the creation 
of the inorganic universe, and the mighty changes which it 
had passed through, taken in connexion too with the 
changes which it was yet to be conducted through prior to 
the arrival of man, sufficient to warrant the inference of 
the omnipotence of the Divine Creator? Let it be observed 
that the question is not whether Omnipotence had demon- 
strated its existence by doing all that it could do; by ex- 
hausting itself, so to speak, in its acts of physical creation. 
Yet this is the kind of evidence of the Divine Power which 
many persons inconsiderately suppose themselves entitled 
to look for. Whereas the existence of such evidence is not 
only inconceivable in itself, but, as we have before shown, 
would, if it were possible for it to be realized, defeat the 
very end of its existence. For, the attainment of that end 
— the display of omnipotence in the eyes of finite intelli- 
gence — requires that the display be progressive; that it 
include displays of power other than the creation of mere 
inorganic matter, and additional to it ; — this is implied in 
the supposed existence of the finite intelligences themselves ; 
and that it include power equal to every crisis that may 
occur in the system created — otherwise it would be objected 
that proof of all-sufficiency was wanting in a most vital 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



137 



point. Accordingly, the manifestation of the Divine Power 
is still in progress ; Power, not for the production of phy- 
sical effects only, but for the attainment of other and 
higher ends. The manifestation of the Divine Wisdom, or 
Goodness, does* not terminate that of Power ; they co-exist 
and cooperate together. The question is, therefore, whether 
the creation of the material system, and the series of 
changes in it which we have referred to, furnish an adequate 
illustration, of the kind, of the Divine omnipotence. 

7. That the power of God had demonstrated its suffi- 
ciency for the production of certain effects is evident ; for 
these effects had taken place. But had all the effects taken 
place r which, under the circumstances, might have been 
expected? Novel as this question may be, and unanswer- 
able, in a definite and categorical respect, as it must be, it 
appears to me that it involves that proof of all-sufficiency 
of which we speak, and that an approximation to a satis- 
factory reply is by no means impossible. In order, in- 
deed, to a reply arithmetically accurate, it would be requi- 
site — in reference to the earth, for example — to know 
(setting aside the power necessary for the organization of 
its material) how many changes that material could pass 
through, and the length of time necessary for the process. 
That is, we must know the number of the simple substances 
of which it is composed ; the properties of each substance — ■ 
its density, gravity, cohesion, elasticity, its relations to heat, 
electricity, and magnetism, together with all its chemical 
affinities; and the definite amount of each substance in- 
cluded in its constitution. With these data in our posses- 
sion, we must determine the number of terrestrial changes 
possible; and then, having ascertained the lapse of time 
from the Great Originating Act to the period of which we 
speak, and the number of the terrestrial changes during the 



138 



THE PKE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



interval, we should be in a condition to furnish an answer 
to the question proposed. 

8. Now, although such a reply, with our present limited 
means and powers, is not attainable, an approximation to 
the truth, sufficiently near, is not impossible. If it should 
appear, for example, that, of the number of terrestrial 
changes possible, a vast variety had taken place prior to 
the production of organic forms, and between that period 
again and the creation of man; that the number of in- 
organic changes which have since occurred, are as nothing 
in the comparison ; and that the degree of all subsequent 
changes is as insignificant as the number; we may safely 
infer in favour of the affirmative of our question. If it 
should appear probable that the number and variety of our 
terrestrial changes are only a specimen of similar changes 
through which worlds and systems, beyond our powers of 
calculation, have been variously conducted from the begin- 
ning, the affirmative reply will be still further warranted. 
And if it should be made probable that cosmical changes, in 
every stage of revolution, and on a scale beyond our powers 
of conception, are still in process — what more could be 
desired to complete our conviction of the sufficiency of the 
Divine Power for the number of the physical changes in 
question ? 

9. That evidence of the truth of these suppositions exists 
in abundance will, doubtless, be freely admitted. Astronomy 
assures us of vast nebulous objects, exhibiting " no regu- 
larity of outline, no systematic gradation of brightness," 
and suggesting the idea that they are awaiting the slow 
process of aggregation into masses; as if on purpose to 
show the all- sufficiency of the Creator. The regions of 
space are inhabited by countless worlds and systems ; 
exhibiting indications of an endless variety of colour, 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



139 



density, magnitude, motion, relative position and mutual 
dependence, as if for the sake of showing the boundless 
resources of the Divine Power. Proofs of geological revo- 
lutions, in number not yet ascertained, if at all ascertain- 
able, and in degree beyond all computation, are placed by 
the hand of God within the crust of the earth, as if in order 
to challenge our unquestioning faith in his all-sufficiency. 
Traces of a long and bewildering succession of changes, to 
the number, variety, and extent of which the imagination 
has never yet done justice, are there stored up, as if ex- 
pressly that man might see and believe. The amount of 
evidence of the Divine sufficiency for all the terrestrial 
changes which might have been expected, is not merely 
adequate for conviction. For such a purpose, it exists in 
excess. It carries the mind into the future; awakening 
the idea that it is the design of Omnipotence to conduct the 
earth, the material universe, through all the changes of 
which it admits ; to occupy space without limit in unfold- 
ing the universe of matter, and duration without end in 
unfolding its properties by a succession of ever-varying 
change ; and thus to display the sufficiency of His own 
power as the Originator and Sustainer of the whole. 

10. The second condition of the law now under consi- 
deration, then, had been satisfied — the earth had existed 
long enough to justify the inference that the power which 
had shown itself sufficient for conducting it through all the 
changes of which it exhibits the evidence, is all-sufficient 
for every change of which the earth admits. Had the 
evidence of this truth been incomplete, when, according to 
the law of progression, the earth had become adapted to 
human life, I believe that the law of progression w r ould have 
waited for the completion. Hazardous as this sentiment 
may appear, it is only affirming that the means would have 



140 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



been subordinated to the end ; that one proximate end 
could not be sacrificed to another, without losing sight of 
the great and ultimate end. But, when it is remembered 
that we are speaking of the procedure of ' God only wise,' 
all appearance of hazard vanishes ; for, " seeing the end 
from the beginning," He makes all his operations har- 
moniously coincide, rendering the attainment of one part of 
his design 1 the fulness of time' for commencing the attain- 
ment of another. 

XIX. 

Reason of the Method. — All the preceding laws relate, 
as I conceive, to the method of the Divine procedure. And, 
as far as we have gone, we have seen this application to 
the first department of that procedure — the inorganic 
universe. 

The Keason for this method remains to be considered. 
It will be found, I submit, to be twofold. The first part 
is founded in the constitution of the beings by whom the 
method is to be studied, and involves the well-being of the 
creature ; the second is founded in the destiny of the crea- 
ture, and involves, in addition, the ultimate end of the 
whole — the glory of God. The reason relates, therefore, to 
the law, that the beings to whom the manifestation is to be 
made, and by whom it is to be understood, appreciated, 
and voluntarily promoted, must be constituted in harmony 
with these laws ; or, these laws of the objective universe 
will be found to have been established in prospective har- 
mony with the designed constitution, and the destiny of 
the subjective mind which is to expound and to projit by 
them. My remarks on the apparent reason for the Divine 
method must be, for the present, comparatively brief ; on 
the obvious ground that we have not yet reached the human 
dispensation, or examined the constitution of man, and that, 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



141 



consequently, all we may now advance anticipates our con- 
sideration of that subject, or presupposes the knowledge 
of it. 

1. Were it proper to enlarge on the law which I have 
just quoted, it would be easy and interesting to trace the 
harmony and coincidence of the constitution of the material 
universe with the constitution of the human mind. For 
the present, however, it will suffice to remark generally, 
Jirst, that if the organic universe is to be understood by 
man, and to prove conducive to his well-being, it must be 
constructed according to a plan. Here we perceive, at a 
glance, a reason for that law of uniformity, without which 
man would possess his powers of observation in vain, and 
creation would be only and truly ' a fortuitous concourse 
of atoms :' — and for that law of all-connecting relationship, 
without which induction would be impossible, and inquiry 
would be constantly baffled and brought to a pause, but 
owing to which man is ever ascending to higher and wider 
generalizations, and an endless multitude of parts becomes 
a united whole: — and for that law of analogy, without 
which he could not take even a first inductive step, for 
nature would furnish him with no hint respecting the 
direction in which he should proceed; but by which he now 
possesses a clue for threading its most intricate labyrinths, 
and finds himself satisfactorily rising from physical science 
to natural theology, and thence to the domain of Kevelation. 

Without the laws in question, observation, experiment, 
science, life itself, would be impossible. But, with them, 
matter becomes the educator of mind; aids in revealing it 
to itself, and in preparing it for higher revelations. While 
these laws are not so obscure as to defy his diligence, they 
are not so obvious as to force themselves on his involuntary 
notice. If he will, he can extract their secrets, and incor- 
porate them as organic parts of his systematized knowledge. 



142 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



In the midst of an unknown multitude of worlds, man feels 
himself at home; since " the stars in their courses" are 
obedient to law. And when geology has led him back 
through an unknown succession of ages, he feels that he is 
only travelling through the ancient monuments of the same 
law, in the direction of the Divine Legislator himself. 

2. And, secondly, if the inorganic universe is to be under- 
stood by man so as to answer the ultimate end, it must be 
constructed in a manner calculated to refer him to an 
Almighty origin. Here, again, if we were not presupposing 
the knowledge of man's mental and moral constitution, we 
might enlarge on the laws of ultimate facts, and of neces- 
sary truth, as pointing directly to such an origin. For the 
present, however, we shall limit ourselves to a remark on 
the single law, that the constitution of the material universe 
may be expected to be found contingent, or resolvable into 
the sovereign will of the Divine Creator. 

If the inorganic universe did not exhibit marks of con- 
tingent arrangement, and if man had not the power of 
interpreting them aright, it would not be the means of the 
Divine manifestation, but would only manifest itself — dis- 
close its own properties — proclaim its own nature. Instead 
of referring the human mind to God, it would literally 
stand between man and its Creator, and would tend to 
enclose man in its own material mechanism. 1 But we 
have seen that it does exhibit the expected signs of con- 
tingency. Its properties appear to be selected, and its 
relations to be instituted. Properties of some kind it must 

1 Design implies freedom of choice; natural law means, as employed 
by materialists, a necessity. The fact of design may be inferred from 
any degree of regularity, however imperfect, which cannot reasonably 
be ascribed to chance. The establishment of a single exception is 
fatal to the hypothesis of a natural or necessary law. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



143 



have, nor can we conceive it to be destitute of every kind 
of relation; but it cannot be shown that the actual pro- 
perties were absolutely necessary, nor that the actual rela- 
tions might not have been modified without end. On the 
contrary, choice, adaptation, and adjustment, are every- 
where visible ; and the mere facts that matter, though not 
capable of its own creation, should yet be found in ex- 
istence ; and though unconscious, should yet exhibit a 
scientifically arranged constitution, sufficiently point to the 
Divinity of its origin. 

3. Here, then, we see the two-fold reason for the chosen 
method of the Divine manifestation. Let the evidence that 
the power displayed in the material universe is His power 
sink below a certain degree, and man will be excusable for 
" worshipping the creature rather than the Creator." Let 
the evidence rise beyond a certain degree, and conviction 
will not be optional, nor voluntary adoration possible. The 
Divine method provides against each danger. If man will, 
he may make that uniformity of nature, without which 
there would be no evidence of the Divine power, the very 
occasion of forgetting and denying such power; or, if he 
will, he may make it the occasion of ascending to the 
proofs of that contingency and appointment on which the 
uniformity itself depends. The constitution of the material 
system told of an Almighty maker, in a way which foretold 
a race of intelligent and accountable creatures. 

XX. 

The ultimate End. — We are led to expect that both the 
laws of the method, and the reason of it, will find their 
ultimate end, in relation to this stage of the Divine Proce- 
dure, in contributing to prove the all-sufficiency of the 
power of God. 



144 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



1. In our remarks on this subject, under the first law, 
we have stated distinctly that we do not claim for this 
opening stage a display of power exclusively, but pre-emi- 
nently. God himself is often found, in His word, appealing 
to the creation of the material system, as His own chosen 
proof of power. We remarked also that we were not then 
about to infer the extent of the power displayed in the 
material creation, whether it be limited or unlimited. Nor 
do we now say that this opening stage mathematically de- 
monstrates the absolute infinity of the Divine power. If it 
did so, all the illustrations of power derivable from the sub- 
sequent stages of the Divine Procedure, would, as further 
evidence, be superfluous ; for the proofs have been accumu- 
lating ever since, whereas we are only as yet dealing, by 
supposition, with the opening proof. And, we conceive, 
that as the metaphysically adequate proof of infinite power 
must itself be infinite, the only possible manner in which it 
can be furnished to finite beings, is by a progressive accu- 
mulation through infinite duration ; and therefore can only 
be always in process. But we can conceive, also, of such a 
display of power within a space and a time not absolutely 
unlimited, as should furnish beings capable of reasoning 
from analogy, with ample, superabundant evidence of power 
unlimited. Such an exercise of power we believe to have 
been displayed in the primary stage of creation. 

2. Now, in order to fill our imagination for awhile with 
this illustration of the Divine Power, let us glance at the 
nature and magnitude of the vast system to which the earth 
belongs. And the point from which we might most ad- 
vantageously start would be an elementary atom. But 
where shall it be found? Animalcules — organized beings 
possessing life and all its essential functions — are in some 
cases so minute that a million of them would occupy less 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



145 



than a grain of sand. A grain of musk will continue to 
yield odour, to throw off an incalculable number of par- 
ticles of matter, for twenty years, without any sensible 
diminution of its weight. Yet, on apparently conclusive 
grounds, it may be inferred that matter is not infinitely 
divisible. For the present, however, science must be con- 
tent with an inference. 

But it matters little that we cannot begin with a strictly 
indivisible atom ; since, even if we could, the combination 
of as many of these as go to form a microscopic insect might 
baffle all our powers of arithmetic. Let us begin with one 
of these living atoms ; and, remembering that every particle 
of which it is composed is a production of Almighty power, 
and that a million of these will only equal the size of a 
grain of sand, — according to Ehrenberg, a cubic inch of 
the tripoli of Bilin contains 40,000 millions of the siliceous 
coverings of the Gralioneltee, — let us try to conjecture how 
many of these grains would equal a cubical mile of rock; 
and then recollect, that to equal the size of the earth we 
must accumulate 263,858,149,120 such masses. 

3. Immense as this aggregate of matter is, when com- 
pared with the entire solar system it dwindles to a point. 
The mass of the sun itself is 354,936 times that of the 
earth, so that were its centre brought to the centre of the 
earth, it would not only fill up the orbit of the moon, but 
would extend nearly as far again. But this is as nothing 
compared with the mass of some of the stars. Who can 
conjecture the magnitude of a body which would fill the vast 
orbit of the earth ! But, though our mean distance from 
the sun is ninety-five millions of miles, and that of Uranus 
about nineteen times greater, or 1,800,000,000 miles, the 
bright star in Lyra has a diameter which, it has been said, 
would nearly fill even that orbit. 

L 



146 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



Among the planetary nebulae there are masses so enor- 
mous, that, according to the computation of Sir John 
Herschel, if they are as far from us as the stars, their real 
magnitude, on the lowest estimation, must be such as would 
fill the orbit of Uranus; while among the nebulous stars 
there are some of dimensions so vast — not improbably sys- 
tems of stars — that were one of them in the place of the 
sun, its atmosphere would not merely include the orbit of 
Uranus, but would extend eight times beyond it. 

4. In the presence of such masses, indeed, the moon, the 
earth itself, may be omitted as an inappreciable quantity, 
and the space occupied by our system be passed by as an 
unassignable point. But the estimate is hardly yet begun. 
The milky way derives its brightness from the diffused 
light of bodies each of which may be equal to that of Lyra, 
and of which 50,000 passed through the field of Sir W. 
Herschel's telescope in an hour: 2500 nebulae, and clusters 
of stars, have been observed by Sir John Herschel; and 
an unknown number more remain to be observed. In some 
of those which he has examined, " ten or twenty thousand 
stars appear compacted or wedged together in a space not 
larger than a tenth part of that covered by the moon, and 
presenting in its centre one blaze of light." The number 
of the distinguishable telescopic stars of the milky way has 
been estimated at eighteen millions. But beyond the 
milky way of stars, and almost at right angles with it, there 
is a milky way of nebulae. A nearer approach might re- 
solve these into clustered myriads of stars, and reveal 
another milky way beyond. 

5. Let us try to imagine the distance of one of the star- 
clusters in the nearer milky way. The earth, we have said, 
is ninety-five millions of miles from the sun. Uranus is 
nineteen times further. The great comet of 1680 recedes 
forty-four times further than Uranus ; and requires, accord- 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



147 



ing to Encke, 8,800 years for its revolution. The nearest 
fixed star is supposed to be 250 times farther from the sun 
than this comet at its greatest distance, while the star 
a Centauri is 11,000 times, the star 61 Cygni is 31,000 
times, and the star a Lyrse is 41,600 times more distant 
than Uranus ; so that light travelling at the rate of about 
170,000 miles a second, would be three years, nine years 
and a quarter, and twelve years, in reaching us from these 
bodies, respectively. But if each of the stars in a nebulous 
cluster be a sun, and if they be separated by intervals equal 
to that which separates our sun from the nearest fixed star, 
light would require thousands of years in order to reach us 
from such a distance. " The rays of light of the remotest 
nebulae must have been about two millions of years on their 
way." 1 They are therefore, as Humboldt remarks, " the 
voices of the past which reach us. It has been well said, 
that with our mighty telescopes we penetrate at once into 
space and into time. Much has long disappeared from 
those distant regions before it vanishes from our view, and 
much has been newly arranged before it becomes visible to 
us." But were the means of vision which enable us to 
behold that remote point to be doubled, who can imagine 
that we should not see other clusters burning at as great 
a distance beyond it, as it is beyond us ; and that were we 
to be transported to that remoter system, we should not 
behold similar unterminated collections of suns and systems 
as far beyond ? 

6. But if such are the distances which intervene, the 
quantity of matter of which the sidereal heavens is composed, 
lost though we are in the greatness of the estimate, bears a 
very small proportion to the immensity of space. There 

1 Sir W. Herscliel, in the Transact, for 1802, p. 498. Sir J. Her- 
schel's Astr., § 590. 

L 2 



148 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 

are vast " openings in heaven," desolate and starless 
regions. " Large as the bodies are, the distances which 
ifeparate them are immeasurably greater." But even this 
I space is not a void. It appears to be traversed in all 
directions by light, and heat, and gravitation. 

7. If we are lost in adoration of the Power which had 
only to say to this space, " Be filled," and it was occupied, 
what can we think of the Being who maintains every atom 
of the whole in constant yet harmonious activity ! We might 
remind ourselves of the muscular force necessary to hurl a 
stone of a pound weight to the distance of a hundred yards, 
or to draw it to us; of the force requisite to project a can- 
non ball of 50 pounds weight with a velocity of a thousand 
miles an hour; but, in the same time, the earth moves 
68,000 miles. Jupiter, equal in weight to 1,400 earths, 
moves with a velocity of 29,000 miles an hour. The rate 
of Mercury is 107,000 miles an hour. The velocity of 
the comet of 1680, is estimated at 880,000 miles in an 
hour. The annual motion of 61 Cygni is a hundred and 
twenty millions of millions of miles, and yet, as M. Arago 
remarks, we call it a fixed star! Such is its distance! 
But this is only a single motion of a single body. Besides 
the rotation of the earth on its own axis, and its annual 
motion, in common with the other planets, around the sun, 
there is ground to believe that the whole of the solar sys- 
tem itself is moving together in one direction ; and beyond 
this, that the entire universe of stars is revolving around 
a common centre, in an orbit so vast, that no measurable 
arc, in no calculable period of duration, would ever appear 
otherwise to us than a straight line. And what if that 
common centre be, as some think, a mass of matter bearing 
the same relation and proportion to the whole circulating i 
universe as our sun does to its attendant planets — then is 



INORGANIC NATURE. 149 

the view which we have hitherto taken of the quantity of 
matter in the universe reduced to utter insignificance. 
But whatever the merit of this supposition may be, the 
new and more enlarged impression which it gives us of the 
quantity of matter falls immeasurably below the sublime 
reality. 

8. Here, in quick succession, our sight abandons the 
ground to our powers of calculation ; our numbers fail, and 
resign the subject to imagination; and even imagination 
sinks, and seeks relief in exclamations of wonder, or in the 
silence of profound adoration. And yet the whole of this 
universal system of masses, vast beyond all that the eye 
can take in ; speeding in every direction, with a velocity 
beyond all that arithmetic can calculate; through realms 
of space beyond all that the mind can conceive, is stable as 
the throne of God. If in the material universe there be 
one point of absolute repose, it is in that common centre of 
creation to which we have adverted. 

9. Now, suppose we had been able to look on the great 
process on a much larger scale than we can at present ; to 
place ourselves so as to obtain a view of these worlds, systems 
of worlds, collections of systems, in all the variety, velocity, 
and extent of their motions, what must have been our reason- 
able conclusions respecting the energy of the Divine Creator. 
Up to that period we should have lived, by the very nature 
of the hypothesis, in an empty, objectless universe; and we 
could not have beheld the numberless unorganized masses 
of matter rolling around us, where all had once been 
vacuity, without regarding the change as an effect, and the 
Cause, or the Being, who had produced it, as possessed of 
a power, to us, unlimited. 

10. If, now, the question, to which we have already ad- 
verted, should be asked, whether or not the proper infinity 



150 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



of the Divine Power could be justly inferred from even 
this display of it — a display which, though indefinitely 
vast, must be necessarily limited? — it may be proper, for 
the present, to submit the following considerations. 

It is freely admitted, as before, that in the eye of 
strict d posteriori reasoning, a given mechanical effect 
implies only the operation of a mechanical cause adequate 
to the production. Beyond this, we admit, that the 
a posteriori argument, from effect to cause, cannot, by itself, 
demonstrate, respecting any cause, that it is the First 
Cause. " Though every true step made in this philosophy 
{physical science) brings us," says Newton, " not imme- 
diately to the knowledge of the First Cause, yet it brings 
us nearer to it, and on that account it is to be highly 
valued." 1 It is always conducting us in that direction, 
but can never certify us respecting any cause with which it 
has properly to do, that there is not another cause beyond. 

11. But here, without stopping to examine whether or 
not an exclusively a posteriori argument be possible; 
whether, even in the present instance, it does not start 
with an a priori postulate, or belief — we have to remind 
the inquirer, first, that we are not speaking of a mecha- 
nical cause, but of an intelligent, personal agent. " We 
must include a distinct personal consciousness of causa- 
tion in the enumeration of that sequence of events by 
which the volition of the mind is made to terminate in the 
motion of material objects." 2 The cause and the effect are 
not homogeneous. The most, therefore, which he can 
affirm, is, that if the created effect be limited, the personal 
Creating Cause may be limited also ; language which im- 
plies that He may not be limited ; and, that if the effect 

1 Optics, Query 28, p. 345. 
2 Sir J. Herschel's Astronomy, p. 232. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



151 



be only of a physical nature, the Personal Cause may not 
be equally adequate to produce effects of any other kinds ; 
language, again, which implies that He may be adequate ; 
and we know that He has since proved it. A material 
cause is measured by the effect, an intelligent cause is only 
proclaimed. 

12. Secondly, it is to be remarked, that this necessary 
limitation of the a posteriori argument is a tacit confession 
of its own incompetence and insufficiency, except within the 
circle of mere mechanical causes and effects. It professes 
to trace only the operation of laws, not to account for 
their origination. By this very confession, that its mate- 
rials are not self-contained and self-sufficient, but derived, 
it refers the inquirer to a source of derivation beyond 
themselves. By acknowledging its own inefficacy, it em- 
phatically directs him to carry his appeal from the laws of 
matter to the laws of mind. By exhibiting laws, it silently 
points to a lawgiver. The very tendency of the a poste- 
riori process, in its ascent from effects to their apparent 
causes, is to awaken the idea of a First Cause. And, once 
the idea is awakened, the existence of such a Cause is felt 
to be an intellectual necessity ; the mind cannot be satis- 
fied without it. Aristotle himself has said, " All that is 
in motion refers us to a mover, and it were but an endless 
adjournment of causes were there not a primary immovable 
Mover." That First Cause, indeed, must be immensely 
different, both in rank and in nature, from the subordinate 
physical causes to which it has imparted motion ; but still 
the mind feels the necessity for such a cause with all the 
force of an intellectual instinct. The mind was constituted 
to feel this necessity, and thus to supply the last link in the 
chain of reasoning from itself, as much as it was made and 
meant to find the preceding links in the phenomena of nature. 



152 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



13. The inquirer is to be reminded, thirdly, that in af- 
firming the limitation of the created universe, he is quitting 
his a posteriori ground, and is inconsistently availing him- 
self of an a priori assumption. True, he may start, on 
this point, from a posteriori ground — having observed that 
some parts of the material universe are divisible from each 
other; but he cannot make this the basis for the inference 
that all parts are in the same predicament, without either 
most unphilosophically jumping to a conclusion, or having 
recourse to a priori deductions. Certainly, observation has 
nothing to do with his supposition. Push his inquiries as 
far as he may, he nowhere finds vacuity or a limit. All the 
regions of space, as far as he can explore them, are occupied. 
Could he actually look on the frontiers of creation, he would 
not know that he was doing so ; — there might, for aught he 
could say, be something beyond. But he has abandoned 
all thought of finding any confines to nature. Reasoning 
a priori, there must be limits ; for a substance divisible 
into parts cannot be infinite. But observation, and the 
legitimate inductions of observation, can exhibit no proof 
of limitation. 

14. We have to remind the inquirer, fourthly, that he 
is in danger of overlooking the power presupposed in 
the creating act — the act of the absolute origination of 
matter. He is thinking only of the quantity of matter in 
existence, and of its motions. The nature of the agency 
necessary to call it into existence is lost sight of. Now it 
seems impossible to conceive of that power as limited. 
Not only was there nothing, ex hypothesi, absolutely no- 
thing, existing objectively to limit it; but that, in this 
state of absolute nonentity, the Deity should have " called 
the things which were not as though they were," can be 
conceived of only as the prerogative of Omnipotence alone. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 



153 



Probably, the absolute origination of even a single atom 
would be proof demonstrative of infinite power in the eyes 
of exalted intelligences. 

15. Fifthly, the inquirer is to be reminded of the very 
important fact that, on his own admission, the limitations 
of matter in space originate, not in the Cause, but in the 
very nature of the thing caused — of the material medium 
which exhibits the effect. He himself predicates of matter 
that it is conditioned by limits ; that its nature forbids it 
to be properly infinite in extension. The question arises, 
therefore, what series of effects, exhibited in a substance 
necessarily subject to spacial limits, he — as a being consti- 
tuted to infer, from what he sees, more than he sees — 
would deem an adequate illustration of uncircumscribed 
power? We just now intimated that the absolute origi- 
nation of a single atom might be, in the estimation of 
superior beings, both the sole prerogative and the adequate 
proof of Omnipotence. But here is a universe of matter ! 
He has no line with which to measure it. Words, num- 
bers, imagination, fail, in succession, to do justice to the 
interminable reality. We say, interminable; for the in- 
quirer must bear in mind that our view of the Divine 
power relies especially on the phenomena of the material 
universe, regarded as successive and progressive. Now, 
could its unimaginable masses be caused to roll or rush 
before him, in succession; surely he would not require 
many ages of such a survey to elapse, before he would feel 
constrained to exclaim, "It is enough!" Here, too, is a 
universe of matter in motion. Let him be given to under- 
stand the numerical amount of the forces implied in all this 
activity; surely, after the calculation had lasted for ages 
without any prospect of termination, he could not forbear 
confessing, " Nothing is too hard for God!" Here is a uni- 



154 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



verse perpetually changing in all its parts. The changes 
which our own planet has passed through imply periods of 
time beyond our computation. Let him conceive himself 
to have beheld the first change, and the next, and so on, in 
succession ; surely he would have exclaimed, ages, and cycles 
of ages ago, " Power belongeth unto God ! " — all-sufficient 
power. He cannot but feel that, in such an imaginary 
position, the mere reasoning which measures the cause by 
the effect would soon be out of place; that, having pre- 
pared the way for a loftier rule, it would confess its own 
inadequacy, and be silent. Other and higher faculties than 
it implies would be awakened, and would assert their claims. 
And when he remembered that the mighty system was, 
both in the constitution of every particle and the collocation 
of its unnumbered worlds, entirely dependent on the will of 
God, he would feel that even here " was the hiding of His 
power" — that He could reduce or enlarge the universe at 
pleasure. When he saw the innumerable changes which the 
great system had already passed through ; and that no trace 
was visible of a failure of power, but, on the contrary, 
that everything was apparently constructed and conducted 
to evince its presence and its plenitude, he could not but 
feel himself challenged to say whether anything more was 
wanting to convince him of the all- sufficiency of God, 
in this department, for all the future. And when he 
recollected, that " the arm of God was still bare," still 
evolving and working out the .immeasurable scheme; that 
every new moment brought with it an incalculable amount 
of new evidence of the Divine Power to be added to all the 
accumulations of the past ; and that of such increase there 
was no prospect of an end ; he would feel himself in the pre- 
sence of a God all-sufficient, and spontaneously adore. 



INORGANIC NATURE. 155 

16. For, in the consideration of this subject, it should 
never be forgotten, that, as we have before remarked, man is 
not merely an intellectual, but also a moral being ; a being 
meant for virtue as well as for reasoning, and partly, as the 
result of his reasoning. In relation to every moral truth, 
therefore, which he may be required to believe, evidence, 
depending for its due effect on his own diligence, attention, 
and state of mind, is to be expected, to a certain amount, 
but not beyond that amount. If wanting in that amount, 
belief would be impossible ; if it be in excess of that amount, 
it would, by compelling belief, make virtue impossible. 
Constituted as man is, if his belief is to be at once rational 
and virtuous, the evidence on which it is to be based must 
be supplied in "weight and measure." Such evidence, it 
is conceived, is supplied in this opening stage of the Divine 
procedure — evidence calculated to call forth the intelligent 
and adoring exclamation, " Lo ! these are parts of His ways; 
but the thunder of His power who can understand ! " And 
thus the method and the reason of the Divine Plan, as 
evinced in this primary display, find their ultimate end, 
in contributing to prove the all-sufficiency of the power 
of God. 



FOURTH PART. 



ORGANIC NATURE. 



The Second Stage of Divine Manifestation: 

POWER AND WISDOM. 

The first stage of the Divine manifestation disclosed to us 
" enormous masses of matter rolling around the horizon of 
illimitable space," impelling us to the conclusion that the 
Creator of these must be a Being of all-sufficient power. 

Let it be supposed that, haunted and bewildered with the 
sublime spectacle, and with the laws to which we saw mat- 
ter successively subjected, we had retired to muse on the 
omnipotence of the Being who had produced the whole, 
and on the probable design of its production ; and suppose, 
that now again, after the lapse of an incalculable period, it 
were permitted us to revisit some part of the material 
universe, to behold the manifestation of another perfection 
of Deity; what may we conceive that perfection would 
be? 

1. But here, again, let it be premised that we do not 
contemplate anything like sudden transition in the Divine 
Manifestation, any distinct line which appropriates all 
within it to one attribute to the exclusion of every other. 
The very progressiveness of the manifestation implies the 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



157 



contrary ; implies that which we actually find, that even the 
earliest attribute supposes the coexistence of all that 
appear after it, and is itself to be carried on through all 
the intermediate stages of the great process, to the last. 

2. But if, for reasons already assigned, we are warranted 
in concluding that the manifestation will be gradual ; and 
if, in harmony with this expectation, we have found that 
the first display was an exercise of power, and that even 
this display advanced from step to step, as if to point 
attention to something yet beyond ; we are surely warranted 
in expecting that the period will come in the history of 
creation, when another attribute will characterize the 
manifestation as distinctly as power does already. What, 
we repeat, is that attribute likely to be? 

We have already answered the question, in effect, by 
supposing that the manifestation of that power has filled 
us with wonder as to what is the design of the universe of 
matter. Wisdom, then, is the next perfection for whose 
manifestation we look; for with God, design and wisdom 
mean the same thing. Wisdom is evinced in the adaptation 
and adjustment of means to ends. Having seen the 
means, (we might be supposed to say,) let us proceed 
to examine the ends. Power has produced the material ; 
in what way, and to what purposes, will Wisdom employ it? 
Immeasurable ages have elapsed since the first fiat went 
forth, and the universe seemed filled, or filling, with a new 
substance; what changes may not have passed on it, be- 
sides those which we witnessed, during the mighty interval ! 
What if, since our last survey, another fiat should have 
gone forth ; and, in consequence, another effect have been 
produced as wonderful as the first, and by means of it ! 

Now what should we be willing to accept as such an 
effect? And here, if the mind would do anything like 



158 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



justice to those primary displays to which, in the order of 
the subject, we are now approaching, it should labour to 
divest itself, as much as possible, of all the impressions of 
the Divine Wisdom which it has received from the later 
and loftier stages of the manifestation. Placing ourselves, 
then, in the situation of beings to whom nothing of the 
kind has yet been disclosed, what, we repeat, should we be 
willing to consider as a display of wisdom — of wisdom so 
marked, as to constitute an era in the manifestation, so 
wonderful, that it should seem to unveil to us a new view 
of the Divine character, to bring us nearer than ever to 
the Divine presence, and to remove all bounds from our 
expectation as to the future? 

3. We will suppose that the particular section of the 
universe visited is the solar system; and that, having 
marked the scientifically calculated intervals between the 
sun and the planets, and between the planets themselves, 
and especially the rigorous equality subsisting between the 
angular motions of rotation and revolution of each satellite, 
we have been brought to conclude, with Laplace, that the 
arrangement is a protest against chance. We will suppose 
that the particular part of the solar system to which we 
direct our attention is the earth ; that we mark the pro- 
gressive changes which it exhibits as compared with that 
primitive fluidity in which we beheld it untold ages ago ; 
trace over again its laws of motion, and chemistry, and 
crystallization ; and fancy ourselves one while standing in 
the midst of a vast chemical laboratory, where the great 
agent heat was crystallizing all things ; and another while, 
amidst the conflicting operations of its well-matched 
antagonist, water, assailing, wearing, and reducing con- 
tinents of crystal to atoms, and carrying them away to its 
own depths, but bearing them away only to lose them 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



159 



again by a subterranean force, which lifts them up from 
their submerged state to the light of day — a lofty table- 
land. Still, we should feel that all this was only the play 
or conflict of inorganic matter; that each form we beheld 
was lifeless, and each motion compelled, or impressed by a 
force from without, u ceasing when that ceased, and never 
proceeding beyond its compulsory impulse, either in direction 
or degree." 

4. What, then, if some form of organic vegetable life had 
now for the first time met our view! It matters not 
whether that form came into existence slowly or suddenly, 
alone, or in company with kindred tribes, and with millions 
of each tribe ; the fact that the earth, after the existence 
of a " limited eternity," has become the owner of a new 
principle — a principle, be it remarked, hitherto unknown 
to the whole course of nature — a principle hitherto peculiar 
to the Creator himself, the sacred and mysterious principle 
of Life; and that innumerable pre-existing phenomena 
were now for the first time employed as means, for the 
development of this new principle as an end ; this would 
surely be hailed by us as an epoch in the progress of the 
Divine Manifestation. 

I. 

Wisdom. — Here was a result of which the supreme 
and ultimate reason is in the Divine Nature. 

5. We have not yet to speak of the extent of the wisdom 
to be inferred from this new form of existence. At present, 
we have only to regard it as evincing the existence of 
design in the Divine Creator. Hereafter, we shall have to 
treat of it as being also a new illustration of creative power, 
and of every attribute and relation of the Deity already 
displayed in the preceding stage. And whatever illus- 



160 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



trations of taste in arrangement, elegance in form, beauty 
in colour, and majesty in magnitude and waving motion, 
are now for the first time brought before us in the botanical 
kingdom, are to be regarded as indications of the Divine 
complacency in the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime. 
As effects, they point to correspondencies infinitely greater 
in their cause. But even the manner in which each of 
these effects is produced is a proclamation of the amazing 
wisdom of the Maker. 

Every green leaf is a magazine of contrivances ; every 
part of it capable of action, a theatre of different organic 
wonders. And these diversities are multiplied to such a 
degree, that, if we would not be bewildered, an attempt at 
classification is necessary at the very outset of our observa- 
tions. Here, in the primeval earth, are the three classes 
which are still extant; the acotyledons, or those which, 
having no flowers, produce no true seeds ; the monocotyle- 
dons, or those producing one-lobed seeds; the dicotyledons, 
or those producing two-lobed seeds. Of these classes, each 
exhibits an internal structure or organization peculiar 
to itself; the first being either vascular and cellular in its 
tissues, or else entirely cellular ; the second, endogenous, its 
growth taking place by addition from without to the 
centre ; the third, exogenous, the growth taking place by the 
addition of concentric layers without, immediately under 
the bark. But each of these classes includes numerous 
orders of plants, each order a number of genera, each genus 
many species, and every species a number of individuals 
defying calculation. Here, too, is " a new thing in the 
earth;" the great elements and phenomena of the inorganic 
world are seen subserving the purposes of organic life. The 
hand of the Creator has mysteriously bound them to the 
new principle. Every root in creation is, by a chemistry 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



161 



of its own, selecting elements from the earth ; every leaf is 
silently feeding on the great air-field around it ; every fibre 
is vibrating to the quickening influence of the light. 
Quiet as is the aspect of the new scene, repose is, in 
reality, a thing unknown to it. Movement, activity, 
multifarious excitement, pervade the silent life of this new 
creation. 

Now could we have looked intelligently on this new, this 
organized, this living, kingdom of nature when first it came 
into existence, without saying respecting the Creator, " His 
understanding is infinite !" Here was the first utterance 
of His wisdom, in the adaptation of means to ends. 

IT. 

The Past brought forwards. — We have now to see whe- 
ther or not pre-existing laws and elements are brought 
forwards and employed in organic life. 

1. Preparatory to this, however, an important question 
claims our attention. Did the creation of vegetable life 
precede that of animal life ? or were they contemporaneously 
produced ? " The earliest forms of life known to geology 
[at present] are not, as might have been expected, plants, 
but animals." A few species of coralloids and conchifers, 
in the slates of the Cambrian system, are, " the oldest 
monuments yet discovered of the creation of living things." 1 
But this fact, geologists admit, leaves the question we have 
proposed unanswered. Lindley's experiments show that 
some species of plants entirely disappear in water. Had 
such plants, then, existed for ages prior to the introduction 
of animal life, their want of power to resist decomposition 
would sufficiently account for the loss of all trace of their 
existence. And geologists are well aware that no certain 
1 Philips's Cyclop. Treat, i. 129. 
M 



162 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



inferences can be drawn from the numerical proportion of 
fossil plants in different strata, respecting the numbers 
which actually nourished during the formation of those 
strata; since their preservation would depend on their 
more or less perishable nature, and on many other circum- 
stances. 

2. For the decision of the question, then, we are referred 
to other considerations. Some suppose they have adequate 
ground for ascribing priority of existence to vegetable life, 
in the evidences which they think they can adduce that 
the atmosphere of the primitive world was surcharged with 
carbonic acid; that this very excess, which would have 
been fatal to animal life, would have been conducive to the 
luxuriance of land vegetation ; and that it was the office of 
such vegetation to purify the atmosphere of the ingredient in 
question, preparatory to the coming of land animals. As this 
supposition, however, is at present open to doubts, we will not 
rely on it; and we need not. A moment's reflection will 
show that in the system of things which God has been 
pleased to constitute, animal life necessarily presupposes 
vegetation, and is, indeed, very much regulated in its ex- 
tent by the quantity supplied. Vegetable is the ultimate 
support of animal life; for, though some animals are car- 
nivorous, those preyed on, if traced downwards, are found 
herbivorous ; just as the herb itself derives its nourishment 
from the pre-existing inorganic elements. This is true of 
fishes and cetaceous animals which feed on the smaller 
plant-eating Crustacea; and thus, in the ocean, the phos- 
phoric acid of inorganic nature is, by means of plants, 
carried over to animals. 1 Both analogy and fact, then, 
authorize the inference that plants preceded and prepared 

1 See a paper by Professor Forchhammer, read by Sir R. I. Mur- 
chison to the British Association, 1844. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



163 



the way for animal existence. And the reader of the 
scriptures need not to be reminded that, in the Mosaic 
history of the last creation, vegetable life was called into 
being first. 

3. And as slowness characterises the processes of nature, 
except where the God of nature has an end to be answered 
by quickening them, analogy would lead us to infer that 
between the commencement of the Flora and the Fauna of 
the earth, a considerable period would elapse. This, at 
least, is certain, that the carboniferous group contains more 
than half the known species of fossil plants, and yet no 
trace of the existence of the great herbivorous land qua- 
drupeds appears before the tertiary period. Besides which, 
it should be remembered that some of the vegetable tribes 
found in the earliest strata, appear to have had an end to 
answer prior, in the order of nature, to that of sustaining 
animal life — namely, the office of producing soil, and thus 
preparing the way for the superior tribes of their own 
order of life. But, whether the Flora preceded the Fauna 
by an interval longer or shorter, is of little present im- 
portance. It is enough for us that we have ground to be- 
lieve that life began on the earth by the vegetable 
kingdom. 

4. We are now prepared to see whether or not the pre- 
existing laws and elements of the inorganic world are 
brought forwards and employed in organic life. What more 
there may be in this new department, is not now the 
question; we have at present only to look for the con- 
tinuity described. And first, we recognise it in the ex- 
ternal relations of the plant. Botany has its geography. 
The plant is not only a native of the earth, but each 
different species has its peculiar territory, or, in technical 
language, its "habitation." Did light exist before the 

M 2 



164 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



plant was created? The humblest herb requires it, turns 
towards it, seeks after it, and, without it, perishes. For 
water, it has the power of absorption. For air, it has the 
function of respiration ; its leaves are, in effect, its lungs. For 
the temperature, each species possesses a constitutional adap- 
tation which can never be violated with impunity. The 
first seed that germinated claimed kindred with all the 
material elements which were in existence when it came. 
And the bud at this moment bursting, is holding com- 
munion with the distant sun, and comes to lay all nature 
under tribute. 

5. But let us proceed from this general reference to the 
relation subsisting between the external conditions of the 
plant and its organization, to mark the presence and con- 
tinuity of the laws and results of inorganic nature in the 
internal relations of the plant. Now, as to the organic 
constituents of plants, they are derived entirely, in the 
first instance, from the inorganic world ; and consist chiefly 
of four of the fifty or sixty simple elements — carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Whatever there may 
have been originally included in the constitution of inorganic 
nature, with a view to the future Flora of the earth, no 
new materials were called into existence on the occasion of 
its creation. And, entirely distinct as was the new principle 
of life which was now to be introduced, the pre-existing 
elements were sufficient in the hands of the Creator, for 
the means of its manifestation. Modern organic chemistry, 
we repeat, consists of little more than the study of four of 
these selected elements and their multiform combinations. 
Here is the law of gravity, carrying the root of the plant 
downwards, and making it one with the mass of the earth. 
Here is the attraction of cohesion uniting the parts of the 
plant, and giving it individuality. Here is motion, or 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



165 



mechanical force, carrying the fluids absorbed for nutrition 
from the root upwards. Here is chemical affinity, attract- 
ing the surrounding particles with elective forces, and 
completely changing their nature. Here is developed 
symmetry, answering, in form, to crystallization, giving 
determinate figure to the organized body. 

6. In the preceding Part, we remarked that in the pro- 
duction of the crystal we saw what might be regarded as 
the most finished production of the inorganic world; and 
that, in its symmetrical arrangement we beheld an image 
suggestive of the coming flower. But if the crystal is to 
be looked on, in respect to form, as a mineral flower, the 
flower, though much more, is a vegetable crystal. Cuvier 
affirmed even that the form of the living body is more 
essential to it than its matter. Be this as it may, mor- 
phology, or the subject of form, belongs to the science of 
botany. 

III. 

Progression. — The same theory which led us to look 
for the continuance of pre-existing laws and elements in 
organized matter, leads us farther to expect in this organi- 
zation the manifestation of new effects, or th e introduction 
of a new principle. Nor are we disappointed. Here are 
life and its manifestations. 

1. But what is organic life? As we can acquire a 
knowledge of matter only by the changes of which it is 
susceptible, so life becomes known to us only by its effects 
or manifestations. And these may be summed up under 
the heads of Assimilation and Propagation; the nourish- 
ment of the individual and the continuance of the race. 

2. An organic body is distinguished from an inorganic 
by the mysterious power of assimilation. The inorganic 



166 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



increases by external additions ; thus particles allowed to 
coalesce from a state of solution, arrange themselves into 
crystalline forms, which can increase only by the further 
juxta-position of particles added to them externally. The 
organic is nourished by a power of appropriation within. 
The former on^y finds, the latter prepares, makes, what is 
added to its structure ; re-casting the inert substance, and 
exhibiting it in new unions, not of binary merely, but of 
ternary and quaternary combinations. The inorganic 
changes that on which it acts chemically; the organic 
vitalizes, and imparts to the matter which it vitalizes the 
power of acting in the same way on other substances. This 
is the end and object of that series of functions which, 
beginning with absorption, conveys the absorbed matter 
through the stem into the leaves, then subjects it to a pro- 
cess of exhalation, submits the rest to the action of the 
atmosphere, conveys it back into the system, elaborates it 
by secretion, and ends in assimilation. 

3. And the plant is also generative. The inorganic 
mass, as we have seen, can only increase by cohesion and 
agglomeration from without. But the plant " hath its 
seed in itself." It exists in generations. Besides vitalizing 
that which is necessary to the conservation of each of its 
own parts, it is endowed with the power of giving exist- 
ence to a new whole, and of providing the germ with the 
nourishment necessary for it in order to commence its in- 
dependent being. 

4. If now to the question, What is life? it be replied in 
the language of Schmid, u Life is the activity of matter, 
according to the laws of organization the question na- 
turally arises, What is organization ? Perhaps the best 
answer which has been furnished is by Kant, " An organ- 
ized product of nature is that in which all the parts are 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



167 



mutually ends and means." 1 Let it be remarked, it is not 
said that the product is made up of mutually dependent 
parts ; nor that the parts are mutually causes and effects ; 
both of these descriptions might, in a sense, be true of a 
piece of machinery. But in a piece of mechanism, " the 
parts have no properties which they derive from the whole." 
In an organized body they have; the leaf, separated from 
the plant, begins immediately to lose the properties of a 
leaf, and soon ceases to retain even its form. Here, the 
causes and effects are so related as not merely to excite the 
idea of contrivance and intention; the light in which we 
feel impelled to regard them is that of means and ends re- 
turning into each other with a view to the constitution of 
a whole. The physiologist finds that each intelligible part 
of the system has a definite office; each organ, an appro- 
priate function; that no portion of it exists in vain; and 
that each part not only answers an end, but is so formed as 
to lead to the conclusion that it was constructed for that 
end ; and that that end, which is again to become a means, 
is the reason why it is where, and what, it is. Here, then, 
we find ourselves in a new department of Divine ope- 
ration. 

The notion of design in organized bodies — of contri- 
vance, and of an end to be attained by such contrivance — 
is natural and inevitable to the human mind. The mind 
is made to ask, why this function, or this member, just 
because the object is made to reply. And it is by wisely 
questioning nature, under the conviction that each organ 
and part was intended to answer a certain end, that phy- 
siology has been able to make any progress. Under this 
persuasion it is that Cuvier speaks of the combination of 
organs adapted to " the part which the animal has to play 

1 See Professor WhewelPs Phil, of the Indue. Sciences, vol. ii. c. iii. 



168 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



in nature." But there is another school of physiologists 
which attempts to decry the doctrine of final causes, though 
they will be found to be frequently using language in har- 
mony with it; thus unconsciously rendering homage to the 
idea which they profess to repudiate. " I know nothing of 
animals which have to play a part in nature," 1 says Geof- 
frey St. Hilaire. " I take care not to assribe any inten- 
tion to God." 2 But this, it appears to me, is mere logo- 
machy and self-delusion. Some guiding idea to direct his 
inquiries the physiologist must have. The idea which 
Geoffrey St. Hilaire and his school profess to have taken, 
in opposition to the idea of design or final cause, is that of 
" unity of composition," or " analogues," or "morphology," 
which seeks to reduce all animated nature to one plan or 
principle of composition. Now let their writings be re- 
ferred to, and it will be found that, in effect, they have 
only substituted one form of the doctrine of final causes for 
another; that " unity of composition" is their final cause; 
that they mentally assume it in every physiological in- 
quiry, and find or fancy illustrations of it in every organized 
body. 

5. That organization involves this idea of means and 
ends, as distinguished from causes and effects, contem- 
plated in our last Part, will appear, if we remember, that 
it is here for the first time that we speak of failure or dis- 
ease. " Physiology," observes Bichat, " is to the move- 
ments of living bodies what astronomy, dynamics, hydrau- 
lics, &c, are to those of inert matter ; but these latter 
sciences have no branches which correspond to them as 
pathology corresponds to physiology. For the same reason, 
all notion of a medicament is repugnant to the physical 

1 Principes de Philosophie Zoologique, p. 65. 

2 Ibid., p. 10. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



169 



sciences. A medicament has for its object to bring the 
properties of the system back to their natural type; but 
the physical properties never depart from this type, and 
have no need to be brought back to it. And thus there is 
nothing in the physical sciences which holds the place of 
therapeutic in physiology." On which Professor Whewell 
remarks, " Of inert force, we have no conception of what 
they ought to do, except what they do. The forces of 
gravity, elasticity, affinity, never act in a diseased manner ; 
we never conceive them as failing in their purpose ; for we 
do not conceive them as having any purpose, which is 
answered by one mode of their action rather than another. 
But with organical forces the case is different; they are 
necessarily conceived as acting for the preservation and 
development of the system in which they reside. If they 
do not do this, they fail, they are deranged, diseased. And 
he founds on the distinction this aphorism: " The idea of 
living beings as subject to disease includes a recognition of 
a final cause in organization; for disease is a state in which 
the vital forces do not attain their proper ends. 1 ' Now 
physiological botany includes nosology, or the science 
which treats of the diseases of the vegetable kingdom. 

6. Here, then, (and we only call attention to the fact in 
passing, with a view to its future application,) here, in 
the botanical kingdom, we find ourselves in a department 
of the Divine procedure essentially different from that 
which we have left behind us in the mineral kingdom. 
There we saw events, and thought only of their efficient 
cause ; here we find means, and look for their final cause 
or end. There we found ourselves so near to the First 
cause, — for we cannot conceive of a material cause of the 
adjustment and motions of the planetary system, — that we 
naturally look back to recognise and adore it; here, we 



170 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



find ourselves so near to ends answered by proximate causes 
which we can recognise, that we as naturally look on to 
these ends in admiration of the Divine Contriver. There, 
we saw fixed laws in operation, so that nothing happened 
by chance ; here we see the wise adjustment of means to 
ends, so that nothing is in vain. There we saw physical 
cause and effect taking place in a certain invariable order 
and symmetry, and we felt ourselves in the presence of 
Intelligent Power; here, we see fixed ends or purposes, the 
direction of means towards them, and changes taking place 
to attain them, and we feel ourselves in the presence of a 
Wise as well as an Intelligent Power. 

7. And does not this important distinction account for 
the sagacious remark of Bacon, 1 that final causes are not 
to be admitted into physical or mechanical inquiries ? For 
we see that, while there, we are only among causes and 
effects. It is not until we get into our present region of 
organization that we find ourselves among means and ends. 
As soon as we reach the first link of the living chain, 
" whose seed is in itself," we feel that the only adequate 
definition is, that " the parts are mutually means and 
ends." 

8. And will not the distinction throw light also on the 
difficulty sometimes felt in the estimate of the proofs of 
creative wisdom and power supplied by the contemplation 
of organized life as compared with those derived from the 
study of the heavenly bodies? The former — the organic 
phenomena — it has been noticed, do not furnish (to some 
minds at least) the same ready and conclusive evidence of 
a Deity as the latter — the mechanical phenomena. 2 And 

1 De Augment. Sc. ii. 105. 

2 Professor Powell's Connexion of Nat. and Div. Truth, p. 146. 
Dr. Turton's Nat. Theology, p. 54. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



171 



the view which we are now taking would have enabled us 
to show, a priori, that such would probably be the fact, 
and to assign the reason why. Organic phenomena dis- 
close a number of visible proximate causes combined to 
accomplish a purpose, and we think only or principally of 
the wisdom of the Being who has designed it ; the celestial 
phenomena simplify the theological argument by confining 
our attention to the Being himself, the First Cause of the 
whole. 

Or thus; if we begin at an advanced stage of the 
Creative process, — say, in the animal kingdom, where 
there is conscious enjoyment, we should find illustrations of 
the existence of a good, a wise and an intelligent Power, 
Descending to the botanical kingdom, we find that we have 
lost the proofs of goodness, and have narrowed our argu- 
ment to the fact of a wise and intelligent Power. 
Descending again to the mineral and mechanical kingdom,, 
we find that the proof of Wisdom is gone, and that our 
illustrations are restricted to the fact of the existence of 
an intelligent Power. 1 The argument tapers to a single 
term. But then it is all the more powerfully felt, owing 
to its very simplicity. 

9. Kant's definition of an organized body, as " that in 
which all the parts are mutually ends and means," implies 
a circularity in the operation of the organized system. 
Hence Cuvier represents life under the image of a whirlpool, 
having a constant direction, and always carrying along its 
stream particles of the same kinds ; individual particles of 
which are constantly entering in and departing out ; so that 

1 In the same way, the mere act of creation, could we have wit- 
nessed it, would have furnished a proof of power only, without the 
intelligence. 



172 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



ike form of the living body is more essential to it than its 
matter. 

Now without attempting to estimate the importance of 
the form — understanding by the term, the structure as com- 
pared with the matter of organic life, we would, for the 
present, simply point attention to the fact that an organized 
body involves the idea of a determinate structural form. 
In addition, an organized body has the power of attracting 
into itself parts of surrounding substances, of detaining and 
changing a portion for its own use, and of giving up some 
of its own substance in return. This is in constant pro- 
cess. The structure not only retains its form, like the 
whirl of the vortex, though the matter constantly passes 
away and is renewed; but each particle is acted on at every 
point of the vortex, and is transformed in the whirl. On 
these grounds, the best idea we can obtain of organic 
life is, in the language of Professor Whewell, that it is a 
constant form of circulating matter, in which the matter 
and the form determine each other by peculiar laws [that 
is , by vital forces). Of the mysterious nature of these 
vital forces we shall speak hereafter. 

IV. 

Continuity. — By another of our laws, we are led to ex- 
pect* that the manifestation, besides being progressive, will 
be continuous — leaving no intervals of space or time, but 
such as the modifying influence of other laws may require 
or account for. 

Now if, as we believe, such conditional breaches of con- 
tinuity occur, and if, according to another of our laws, 
every inferior part of creation is destined to serve a higher 
moral purpose, we may be able to show that the exceptions 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



173 



to the rule of continuity contribute ultimately to the same 
end as the rule itself, only in a different manner. The ex- 
ceptions may be as cogent against the doctrine of a necessity 
in nature, as the continuity may be in favour of design. 
At present, however, our concern is with the evidences of 
continuous progress in the Floras of the ancient earth. 

1. For reasons already named, especially that of the 
absorption of plants, owing to their soft and destructible 
nature, during the consolidation of strata, no certain in- 
ferences can be drawn from the numerical proportion of 
fossil plants in the different formations. In the new list, 
by M. Goppert, the species of fossil plants discovered up 
to the present time all over the globe, amount to 1J792. 1 
Their numerical distribution in the different rocks is stated 
to be as follows : — 



Palaeozoic 52 

Carboniferous 819 

Permian 58 

Triassic 86 

Oolitic 234 

Wealden 16 

Cretaceous 62 

Tertiary 454 

Unknown 11 



1,792 

From this table it appears that the carboniferous group 
alone contains nearly half the known species of fossil plants. 
This sudden outburst of vegetable life in the ancient earth, 
as compared with the Floras immediately preceding and 
following, intimates, at least, that the continuous progress 
to be looked for is not that of successive numerical in- 

1 From a paper read by Sir R. J. Murchison to the British Associa- 
tion, 1845. 



174 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



crease. The living Flora, of about 80,000 species, is pro- 
bably an increase on all the past ; but then the increase has 
been numerically irregular. 

2. If traces of a great botanical plan or system are 
sought for, they are not wanting; though they appear to 
be subject to interruptions similar to those which affect the 
numerical proportions of plants. Certain chasms now ex- 
isting in the scheme of botanical organization, have been 
partially filled up by discoveries in the ancient Floras. 
Thus, by means of Lepidodendra, in the transition series, a 
kind of link is supplied between the flowering and the 
flowerless plants. 1 So also the Cycadese, of the secondary 
series, appear to fill up a blank which would otherwise have 
separated the three great natural divisions of plants — the 
seedless class, the one-lobed seed class, and the two-lobed 
seed class. Here, however, without stopping to remark on 
the existence of intermediate spaces which probably have 
never been filled up in the manner suggested, it is enough 
for us to know " that although many extinct genera and 
certain families have no living representatives, and even 
ceased to exist after the deposition of the coal formation, 
yet are they connected with modern vegetables by common 
principles of structure, and by details of organization, 
which show them all to be parts of one grand, and consistent, 
and harmonious design." 2 

3. But, chiefly, is continuous progress observable in the 
gradual increase, and final ascendancy, of the more com- 
plicated dicotyledons, or two-lobed seed class of plants, 
over the more simple forms of the earlier periods. If we 
look at the ancient Floras, as distributed through the three 
great periods of geological history — the transition, the 

1 Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, vol. ii. p. 53. 

2 Buckland's B. Treatise, p. 480. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



175 



secondary, and the tertiary eras — we find that sea- weeds, or 
algae, existed during even the early formations of the first 
period. Such structures are found in Scandinavia among the 
very oldest fossil groups. 1 But it is in the carboniferous series 
of this era, especially, that we are called to admire the 
fulness of vegetable life. Here are, already, the three great 
divisions of plants — the seedless, the one-lobed, and the 
two-lobed seed classes. But while plants of the second and 
third classes are here comparatively rare, those of the 
Cryptogamic, or first class, such as Ferns and gigantic 
Equisetaceae, abound. 

In the next era, a decided change is visible. The 
Ferns and Equisetaceae are reduced both in size and 
number ; being perhaps about one third of the whole. The 
greater part of the remainder are Cycadeae and Coniferae, 
with a few Liliaceous plants; the Coniferae belonging to 
the two-lobed seed class, the Liliaceae to the one-lobed seed 
class, and the Cycadeae, which are so prevalent as to give a 
character to the upper formations of this era, resembling 
the palms of the monocotyledonous class in external ap- 
pearance, and the Coniferae in the structure of the flower 
and fruit. Here, then, is an approach to proportion 
between the first and the third classes of plants. 

In the third era the scale is decidedly turned. Most of 
the families of the first period, and many of those of the 
second, have disappeared. Plants resembling our own Flora 
have taken their place. We recognise our planes and firs, 
willows and elms, poplars, chesnuts and sycamores. The 
dicotyledonous, or two-lobed seed class, predominates. In 
our living Flora they form about two-thirds of the whole. 

Taken as a whole, then, the geological periods exhibit 
botanical progression. It is easy to conceive of more 

1 Professor Forchhammer's paper to the British Association, 1844. 



176 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



striking illustrations of the rule. We can conceive, for 
example, of every family resembling the Coniferae, which, 
beginning with the first stage of vegetation, has gone on 
u increasing in the number and variety of its genera and 
species," clown to the last stage. But the plan of the 
Creator did not require such an illustration of the law; 
and, therefore, probably the conditions of the earth did not 
consist with it. It is sufficient to find that the Divine out- 
line of botanical organization has been progressively filling 
up; and also that the order observed has been, on the 
whole, from the primary prevalence of the more rudimentary 
and simple, to the ultimate predominance of the more com- 
plex and perfect forms. Here is nothing, be it remarked, 
to countenance the idea of any want of permanence of 
species. The great three-fold distinction of acotyledonous, 
monocotyledonous, and dicotyledonous, existed in the first 
period as they do still. 

Y. 

Activity. — This new principle of organic assimilation 
may be farther illustrated if we proceed to inquire after 
the application of that law of creation which affirms that 
every being will be found to manifest all that it is calculated 
to exhibit of the Divine nature, by developing or working 
out its own nature — by activity. The activity of the 
mechanical and chemical forces we saw in the preceding 
Part. But these are constantly tending " to produce a 
final condition. Mechanical forces tend to produce equi- 
librium; chemical forces tend to produce composition or 
decomposition; and this point once reached, the matter in 
which these forces reside is altogether inert. But an 
organic body tends to a constant motion, and the highest 
activity of organic forces shows itself in continuous 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



177 



change." " So long as this motion subsists," observes 
Cuvier, " the body in which it takes place is alive; it lives." 1 
Even in popular language, life is a term employed to ex- 
press the highest degree of activity. And in accordance 
with this view of the activity of the vital forces we find 
that they form an ever-whirling vortex. But even this is 
far from conveying an adequate idea of their activity. 
They leave nothing as they found it. They not merely 
move that on which they act, but subdue it; not merely 
change, but assimilate, organize, and share with it their 
own vitality. And though this activity is not always 
maintained at the same rate, so essential is it to the full 
development of organic life that it never pauses. Even 
during winter, when vegetable life is thought to repose, 
new fibres are forming at the roots, a slight progression of 
the sap is going on, and a trifling enlargement of the buds 
taking place; 2 while, wherever an organ is wanting to 
complete the symmetry of the plant, or any departure from 
the normal structure of the flower exists, it is to be ascribed 
to the restraint, or the diversion, of its natural activity. 

Cavanilles, the (Spanish botanist, conceived the thought of 
literally " seeing grass grow," by ingeniously adjusting his 
instruments, at one time to the tip of the shoot of a 
Bambusa, at another, to that of the fast-growing flowering 
stem of an American aloe. And who can doubt that, with 
our sight preternaturally sharpened, and the integuments 
of plants made transparent, we should see ceaseless motion 
in every tissue a*nd every cell of the " germinating, leaf- 
pushing, flower-unfolding, organisms" of the great vege- 
table covering of the earth. 

1 Professor WhewelPs Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. c. iv. 
2 Professor Henslow's Physiol. Botany, p. 234. 

N 



178 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



VI. 

Development, — According to another law, the same pro- 
perties or characteristics which existed in the preceding 
stage are here found to he not only brought on to the 
present, hut to be in a more advanced condition. 

1. Here every law seems double, or to have a counter- 
part. The vital power, as we have seen, is subject to the 
law of gravity ; but while the plant tends downwards, it 
rises upwards too. The same power includes the mecha- 
nical forces producing motion ; but it has the twofold force 
of attracting and repelling at the same point. It is also 
chemical, changing the nature of the substance on which 
it acts; but it also supports itself by the change. It ex- 
hibits affinity ; but to affinity it adds assimilation. Not 
only has it forms of symmetry, and forms, some of which 
do not appear possible to crystals, (as the pentagonal;) 
but while there is reason to believe that in the crystal the 
form depends on the matter, in organic symmetry the 
matter appears to be subordinated to form It has activity, 
but, beyond this, it supports its activity by its action, in- 
creases its strength by exercise. Owing to its superiority 
over all the pre-existing powers of nature it is, that during 
its presence in the organized structure it holds them all in 
subjection. And hence, the vital principle no sooner 
secedes, than these ordinary laws return, dissolve the 
structure, and cause the separated parts to enter into new 
combinations, distinct from those under which they had ex- 
isted as a living body. 

2. And what is still more remarkable, different plant- 
cells possess different powers in this respect. With little 
more than the four elementary bodies — carbon, hydrogen, 
oxygen, and nitrogen, they are found to elaborate an almost 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



179 



endless series of what are called " proximate organic 
principles" of the most diverse properties; one cell 
secreting one principle, and another, another principle, by 
simply combining these elements in slightly different pro- 
portions. Here, again, is the binary principle of inorganic 
union ; but here is also a form of union entirely unknown 
in that division of science. Instead of combinations by 
pairs, here are three or four substances bound up together 
into a single group — a set of ternary and quaternary 
compounds — constituting one indivisible whole, and ex- 
hibiting properties before unknown. Nor, in many cases, 
can the stamp imparted to these properties, of their vital 
origin, be easily effaced by any means employed to destroy 
it. 1 

3. But this superiority of organic nature involves other 
points of distinction with which there is nothing in in- 
organic nature to compare. The vital principle includes 
excitability. We are aware that certain phenomena ex- 
hibited by plants have by some been regarded as proofs of 
the presence of irritability also, and even of sensibility. 
But as they appear to have nothing analogous to a nervous 
system, these phenomena seem to be only instances of the 
extreme action of excitability; by which we mean, 
generally, that property of the cellular tissue — the chief 
organ of nutrition — which " takes cognizance of the action 
of external influences upon it, and by which it resists those 
mechanical and chemical efforts which would otherwise 
soon succeed in decomposing its substance." 2 And even 
when the mystery of life closes in the mystery of death, it 
is only the death of the individual structure we are called 
to witness. The living plant includes the mystery of 

1 See Fownes' Chemistry, &c. p. 41. 
2 Henslow's Botany, p. 161. 
N 2 



180 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



propagation — the power of self-multiplication during life, 
and of continued reproduction after death. Were it our 
object, then, to distinguish between the inorganic and or- 
ganic parts of nature briefly and broadly, we might say, that 
while the former originate fortuitously, enlarge externally, 
and are terminated by mechanical or chemical force, the 
latter originate by propagation, grow by an internal power 
of assimilation, and terminate by death. 

VII. 

Relations. — The harmony of the plant with the con- 
ditions of its existence is necessary, because, according 
to another of our laws, everything is related. Were the 
continuance of the vegetable species independent of the 
reproductive process, or reproduction independent of nutri- 
tion, or were one organ independent of another, that com- 
pliance with law and order of which we have spoken 
would of course be unnecessary. Were botany unconnected 
with light, and air, and moisture, and heat, all these 
elements might depart, and yet leave a flourishing vegetable 
creation behind. It is because each plant is related to the 
whole, by an appointment of the Creator never to be re- 
pealed, that every change in its external condition, and in 
its own organization,, involves a corresponding change in 
its well-being. 

1. Eelations are traceable between the various species of 
the subterraneous Flora and the co-existing conditions of 
inorganic nature. Not, indeed, — and, as we have already 
remarked, the difference is of the greatest importance, — not 
that there is any evidence that a change of inorganic con- 
ditions necessitates the production of new forms of organic 
life, (as if these conditions were independent causes,) but 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



181 



that the production of such new forms of life presupposes 
a corresponding change of inorganic conditions. 

2. Internal relations are also traceable; or correspon- 
dencies between the various parts of the vegetable creation. 
Type is the very term which Naturalists have chosen to 
express this resemblance. It will be remembered that, 
when speaking of crystals, we remarked that their forms 
suggested the idea of likeness or resemblance. We may 
expect, then, that in organic bodies also we shall find this 
analogy, and something else in addition. And we do so; 
we find resemblance of nature and habits. Now this is 
the difference in natural history between analogy and 
affinity : analogy is superficial resemblance, affinity is re- 
semblance of internal structure, properties, and habits. 
But in order to ascertain the affinity of organic bodies, the 
relative importance of the different parts compared must 
be determined; as, for example, whether resemblance be- 
tween the organs of nutrition in two species is to reckon 
for more than resemblance between the organs of repro- 
duction, or for less. The number of affinities present, 
which may be regarded as an equivalent for the absence of 
other affinities, must be settled. Now when these laws of 
classification are ascertained, a type or specimen is to be 
taken, and the question asked, " which approaches the 
nearest to it in all the affinities which characterize the 
class; and which the nearest to this, and so on." The re- 
sult will be, the formation of a natural group around the 
characteristic type. This will not be found to form a 
direct or linear series, answering to the figure of a chain, 
or of a cone of being, to a circular, quinary, or dichotomous 
system, or to any precise artificial arrangement. It may 
form a figure very irregular at its circumference, for it 
seeks no boundary line without; it enlarges from the 



182 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



central type. And as it ramifies in various directions, its 
continuity may be that of a branching tree. But so 
evident is its continuity, that the attempt at natural classi- 
fication can hardly be begun before the mind becomes im- 
pressed with the firm persuasion that analogy and affinity 
reign throughout — that the whole botanical kingdom is con- 
structed on a plan. 

3. From the all-related nature of organic forms, it 
follows, also, that a modification of any one part of a 
plant supposes the modification of every other part. And, 
accordingly, it is found that a change of one organic function 
involves a corresponding change of the whole body. 

VIII. 

Order. — But, according to another of our principles, 
every law will be found to have its order, and may be ex- 
pected to come into operation on each individual subject of 
it, according to its priority of date in the great system of 
creation. Thus, at the moment of separation from the parent 
plant, the seed tends to the earth by gravitation. The 
chemical conditions requisite for germination — moisture, 
oxygen, and a certain elevation of temperature — must next 
be satisfied. Having imbibed " moisture through its in- 
teguments, the embryo swells, the radicle protrudes and 
tends downwards;" the plumule, or terminal bud, expands 
and rises upwards; in other words, the law of developed 
symmetry obtains. Taking firm hold of the earth, it 
commences its own independent existence ; its conservative 
functions come into play in orderly succession ; all of which 
combine to prepare the way for the higher and orderly pro- 
cesses of reproduction, by which its species will be con- 
tinued after its own individual existence shall have ceased. 
Here are " first the blade, then the ear, after that the 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



183 



full corn in the ear." The order of the progression is 
fixed, and no power but His who appointed it can re- 
verse it. 

IX. 

Influence. — It is to be expected that everything will 
bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving 
the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced 
by it; a reason for the degree in which they should be in- 
fluenced by it; and for the degree in which it, in its turn, 
should be influenced by everything else. If the powers of 
inorganic nature are to be ranged according to their activity 
and energy, or their capability of producing changes, it 
will yet be found that the most powerful are themselves 
susceptible of change. Action and reaction pervade the 
physical system, and are essential to its stability. For 
organic nature, all this action and reaction is " taken into 
account," calculated, and employed. The introduction of 
a single plant would have changed the relations of the 
whole. Its most wonderful property is the power which it 
possesses of influencing chemical action, and of thus 
secreting and preparing its own food, and securing its own 
growth. But while thus affecting everything external to 
itself, it is also modified by the very properties which it 
changes. While the leaf is decomposing the carbonic acid 
of the atmosphere, appropriating the carbon to the formation 
of its own proper juices, and returning the disengaged 
oxygen into the atmosphere, its own vital powers are af- 
fected by the quantity of carbonic acid which may happen 
to be present in the atmosphere — a fact, belonging to a 
class, suggestive of the difficult, but momentous truth, that 
human character is at once a constitution and a formation; 
a subjective power, at once modifying, and modified by, ob- 
jective influences. 



184 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



X. 

Subordination. — Again, we find that every law subordi- 
nate in rank, though it may have been prior in its origin, 
is subject to each higher law of the Manifestation. 

1. Accordingly, the productions of power are found to 
be subservient to the exercise of wisdom — the inorganic 
sustains the organic world. And not only so ; it is prepared 
for its office by a process. It is subordinated by decompo- 
sition. No single earth, nor even a composition of two 
earths, is fertile. The union of at least three — lime, 
silica, and alumina, is indispensable to fertility. For 
this the granite is decomposed, and the matter deposited 
by rivers in the bottom of valleys. And to this, every re- 
volution and commingling of the strata of the ancient earth 
has been made subservient. 

2. But this subordination is continuous, extending into 
the vegetable kingdom itself. Chemical and mechanical 
action almost fails to convert some rocks (as quartz) into 
soil. Yet not the less are these rocks made subservient to 
vegetable life. Here, where no other plants would exist, 
the Creator has placed the multitudinous and inexplicable 
tribe of lichens — " the pioneers of vegetation." These 
prepare the way for the mosses ; and these, again, for other 
plants superior still; each retiring in succession, when it 
has contributed by its own life and death to place a better 
race on the spot; till at length the stately tree waves 
where once nothing but the apparently rootless, leafless, 
flowerless lichen could exist. 

3. And this law of subordination is found to descend to 
the physiology of the individual plant. The organs of 
conservation are subservient to the organs of reproduction, 
the individual to the species. Though unconscious of a 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



185 



purpose, no plant lives to itself. In some tribes, the con- 
stitution and cares of the parent plant appear to be con- 
centrated on this point, as on the end of its existence. 
The tribes of animals die as soon as this end is an- 
swered. Others, in a sense, refuse to die, till they have 
answered it. 

4. The same subordination obtains among the individual 
organs. " God hath set the members every one of them 
in the body as it hath pleased Him." And though no 
organ is useless, their value is graduated; and hence, a 
leaf, having answered its end, may fall off without any 
injury to the plant. 

5. But then this subordination of one organ to another, 
of plant to plant, and of inorganic matter to the whole, 
lasts only as long as the plant continues to live. By death, 
it loses its status in the ascending rank of creation, and be- 
comes subject to the ordinary inorganic laws. 

XI. 

Uniformity. — Profound as the subject of life is, all its 
operations will be found to be impressed with the re- 
gularity of general laws. On this condition alone can we 
hope to ascertain its operations, and mark the wisdom which 
they evince. Now the actual existence of such regularity is 
implied in the remarks we have already advanced. The 
vital principle, once superinduced by the Living God, acts, 
according to His appointment, and under His superinten- 
dence, with constancy and certainty. True it is, that in 
studying organic life we find ourselves for the first time in 
the region of mutual adaptations; and that the writer on 
systematic botany is obliged to indite a chapter of 
anomalies. 



186 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



Unlike the law of chemical affinity, which requires that 
the compound be in definite proportions, we find that Life 
asserts its freedom and its power by dispensing with this 
chemical exactness. But even this freedom is only within 
certain limits, or is bounded by law. This power of 
adaptation is according to particular rules, which are all 
ranged under a general rule. It is a law unto itself. For 
example : — Oxygen is indispensable to the germination of 
seeds ; where it is entirely wanting, as in distilled water, 
they will not germinate; while, if acted on by more than 
a certain proportion, they will be over-stimulated. But let 
them have about the right proportion — one part of oxygen 
with three of azote, and they will germinate accordingly. 
The general law cannot be violated ; while the power of 
adaptation by which the seed is adjusted to the circum- 
stances is itself regulated by the universal law which 
measures the cause by the effect, and which determines 
that its action shall be always the same in the same cir- 
cumstances. And as no compliance with the other con- 
ditions of germination will compensate for the want of the 
necessary oxygen, so no supply of this alone will atone for 
the absence of the other conditions of germination. Its 
constitution is defined by laws which must be complied 
with. 

These laws, indeed, must not be confounded with causes. 
The life of the plant presupposes the organization which 
the Creator has been pleased to make a necessary con- 
dition; this condition, however, is not the cause of its 
vitality, but only the means of its manifestation. And 
organization presupposes certain inorganic conditions; but 
these conditions are not the cause of it; they are only em- 
ployed and subordinated to organic ends. All that we re- 
cognise, in either case, is the law or rule according to 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



187 



which the organic and the inorganic are made to act ; the 
cause of that action is entirely distinct. 

XII. 

Obligation. — Organic life exists under an obligation to 
promote the end of creation, commensurate with its means 
and relations. Of course, the only sense in which obliga- 
tion can be predicated of the organic scheme is similar to 
that in which, like the inorganic, it is said to be governed 
by laws. The laws themselves suppose an agent ; for they 
only express the mode in which he acts, the order accord- 
ing to which he proceeds. And as that agent is no other, 
can be no other, than the Lawgiver himself, the obligation 
of which we speak can be only the necessity which He has 
been pleased to incur, to operate in a certain manner in 
order to the attainment of a certain end. Having volun- 
tarily determined on a given end. the adoption of the neces- 
sary means becomes obligatory ; and as the means of which 
we are now speaking are merely organic existences, what- 
ever obligation tlfere is can rest only on a power external 
to themselves, the Power that employs them. 

XIII. 

Well-being. — In accordance with another of our laws, 
we find that the well-being of the plant depends on its con- 
formity to the laws of its constitution. 

1 . Thus, in relation to the internal economy of vegetable 
life, let the process of reproduction fail, and the species 
ceases to exist. Let the organs of nutrition be obstructed, 
and the individual fails. Let the development of the plant 
be arrested, and deformity ensues ; remove the impediment, 
and, if done in time, the dormant power of expansion 
awakes, and the development of the body is completed. 



188 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



And as to the external relations of vegetable life, the range 
of most plants — as to climate, for example — is very limited. 
If the average temperature adapted to the various families 
of plants were to vary as much as five degrees, they would, 
with their present constitutions, speedily suffer, languish, 
and die. From first to last, the life of the plant depends 
on the maintenance of a definite adjustment between its 
constitution and external influences. Compliance with 
the conditions of its existence is indispensable to its well- 
being. 

2. In this stage of creation, still more than in the pre- 
ceding, the idea of perfection is forcibly suggested. In 
this domain of resemblances, we seek a type with which to 
, compare analogous objects; and that type we select from 
among the most perfect objects of its kind. Partly from 
finding that one specimen is better than another, the mind 
erects an ideal standard of excellence with which to com- 
pare everything comparable. But by this standard no 
specimen is absolutely perfect. No two roses, for example, 
have ever been entirely, in every property and particular, 
alike; so that no two have ever stood in precisely the same 
relations to the ideal standard. Even the individual flower 
which has approached the nearest to ideal perfection has 
fallen short of it. Some slight difference in itself, or in its 
circumstances — a difference inappreciable by man, would 
have been followed by a real, though equally inappreciable 
difference in its claim to perfection. Its approach to that 
standard is the measure of its harmony with the prescribed 
laws of its being. 

XIV. 

Analogy. — We have already found, to a considerable 
extent, that this second, or botanic, stage of creation, is 
constructed according to a plan. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



189 



1. Vfe have seen that it is, in all its mineral and 
chemical elements, in complicated harmony with the first, 
and dependent on it. Either the inorganic stage was pre- 
configured to the organic, or the latter was entirely con- 
figured to the former. This correspondence extends even 
to that symmetry, or definite relation of form and number, 
which obtains first in crystallography. For while there 
are some kinds of symmetry common among flowers, which 
are unknown to crystals — such as the pentagonal, there 
are other kinds, such as the trigonal, which prevail in both, 
and which externally unite them together. 

2. The various parts of the vegetable kingdom are also 
in harmony with each other. Indeed, no one family of 
plants could be naturally arranged, except as part of a 
natural classification of all plants. Now the symmetry to 
which reference is here made, involves numerical properties 
which afford a basis for such botanical classification. For 
it is found that the number three is the ground of the 
symmetry of monocotyledonous plants, and the number five 
of dicotyledonous plants, the numerical distinction harmo- 
nizing with, or expressing itself by, a leading difference of 
physiological structure. 

3. The various parts of the vegetable kingdom, regarded 
as successively existent, not only do not derange the plan 
which classifies existing species, but seem necessary in 
order to complete it. The large calamites of the coal for- 
mation take their place in the existing family of equi- 
setacese. The fossil lepidodendra, of gigantic stature, are 
intermediate between living lycopodiaceas and conifers. 
And even the extinct sigillarige and stigonarias, of which 
no living representatives exist, find, as far as the details of 
their organization are known, a definite place among ex- 
isting families. In the Flora of the secondary series, the 



190 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



leading feature consists in the prevailing presence of 
cycadeae. Now, of this family, the cycas revoluta exhibits 
an important physiological peculiarity, by which it forms 
a characteristic link between the living and fossil cycadeae, 
while the existing cycadeae can be shown to connect to- 
gether the great cone-bearing family with the families of 
palms and ferns, and thus to occupy an intermediate station 
between the three great natural divisions of plants. And, 
speaking generally, the plants of the secondary series ex- 
hibit characters of an intermediate kind, between the in- 
sular Flora of the transition series, and the continental 
vegetation of the tertiary strata. 

3. In addition to the evidence of a plan which arises 
from this constant adherence to a determined class of 
primitive types, and to the consequent reduction of every 
species to its appropriate place in the great system, there 
is the remarkable fact of the existence of apparently abor- 
tive^ yet always symmetrical, parts in plants. Botanical 
physiologists " find parts existing in a rudimentary or 
abortive state in one species, which in others serve some 
manifestly important design." In this rudimentary state, 
they seem to exist only for the purpose of suggesting the 
idea of symmetrical arrangement, and of inviting and 
facilitating classification. And " it must be considered an 
additional proof of arrangement, when, as in many in- 
stances, we are able to show that they become subservient 
to a new purpose, by being unfitted to their primary one." 1 

4. Classification. — Now, according to our theory, the 
true system of botanical classification is that which arranges 
the relationship of plants according to the order of pro- 
gressive nature, taken in connexion with the relative im- 
portance of the progressive steps. Thus, beginning with 

1 Dr. Daubeny's Inaugural Lecture on Botany, p. 24. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



191 



mechanical properties, as those of the lowest value, we 
ascend to those of chemical affinity ; to symmetry, or rela- 
tions of form and number ; then to the organs of nutrition, 
each organ rising in value as the process advances ; and, 
finally, to the organs of reproduction, as of the highest 
value; — the relationship being nearest where the affinity 
lies between those characteristics which are of the highest 
value. 

5. This method, 1, so far from arbitrarily selecting any 
one part of the plant as the basis of arrangement, — as the 
corolla, by Tournefort; or the stamen and pistils, by Lin- 
naeus, — requires a minute investigation of every part and 
property. Its peculiarities of chemical composition, the 
" proximate principles" which distinguish it, as well as its 
geographical and climatic relations, are all to be taken into 
the account. 2. Although it assigns the highest value to 
a particular function, it by no means follows that such 
principle is to be universally the basis of arrangement; 
inasmuch as resemblance, in this particular, may be out- 
weighed in some families of plants, by a combination of 
characteristic differences in other particulars. The law of 
the subordination of characters is itself subject to a more 
comprehensive law, which takes cognizance of the entire 
scale of their values, and divides and combines them 
according to the relation of those characters. 3. As an 
organic body is all-related, so that a change in one part of 
its constitution involves a corresponding change in every 
other part, our method supposes that an arrangement cor- 
rectly formed on one function will harmonize with an 
arrangement correctly formed on another function. 4. Our 
method provides, not only for the formation of groups, but 
also of series of groups, ranging according to organic per- 
fection. The distinction between the cellular class, lichens, 



192 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



algas, &c, without sexes, flowers, or spiral vessels, and the 
vascular class, is obvious. And a more intimate acquaint- 
ance with the physiology of the latter class would, doubt- 
less, enable us to range all its species in the order of their 
ascending organization. 

6. The multiplication of the points of agreement which 
the organic kingdom presents as compared with the inor- 
ganic, prepares us to expect an increase of such points 
with every advancing stage of creation ; and, consequently, 
an increasing power of testing the truth of our classifi- 
cations. 

XV. 

Contingent. — According to another of our laws, we may 
expect to find that this new department of organic life ex- 
hibits marks of its contingency, or dependence on the 
sovereign will of the Divine Creator. In the section 
corresponding to this, in the preceding part, we saw the 
cosmical and terrestrial arrangements taking law directly 
from the will of God. Here the illustrations of the Creative 
AYill are still further multiplied in the constitutions and 
properties of organic forms. 

1. For example: there is in plants a cycle of functions 
requiring about 365 days. There is a lesser cycle, or 
alternation, requiring about twenty-four hours. There is 
a measured force in the motion of the sap of every flower; 
and there is an appointed degree of stiffness in the stalk. 
Now there is no inherent necessity whatever, in the plant 
itself, why it should have these particular cycles, alterna- 
tions, and forces, and no others. We can conceive them 
increased or diminished to any degree. But these exact 
phenomena and no others, it may be said, are made neces- 
sary by the previous conditions of the earth, of which they 
have come to form a part. Unquestionably, the first 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



193 



peculiarity is adapted to the annual motion of the earth, 
the second to its diurnal revolution, and the third and 
fourth to the mass of the earth. But, we have shown that 
this motion, revolution, and mass, were themselves originally 
dependent on the Divine appointment. Whether, there- 
fore, we regard inorganic nature as preeonfigured to the 
preordained constitution of organic life, or the organic con- 
stitution as adapted to the pre-existing plan of inorganic 
nature, we have alike a twofold proof of the exercise of a 
Designing Will. 

2. True, the farther we remove from the first stage of 
the Creative process, the less manifest becomes the direct 
intervention of the Creating Will in the subsequent stages, 
and the less marked the direct dependence of the things 
created. This second stage, for example, from being ad- 
justed and made to fit into the first, appears to some as if 
it were directly and entirely derived from it. He who is 
admitted to have originated the first, is supposed to have 
less to do with the second, just because, in His all-compre- 
hending plans, the organic is made to presuppose the inor- 
ganic. The first, from being made a mere condition of the 
second, is in danger of being promoted into the place of the 
great originating Cause. 

3. Even if vegetable life could be shown to be a necessary 
development of material elements merely, still, as no one 
who admits that the laws of matter were derived from God, 
would deny that He foresaw all the developments and 
results of which these laws were capable, and therefore 
foresaw their development in organic life as one of those 
results, such development must be held to furnish a new 
illustration of His manifold design in the creation of matter. 
The illustration only takes a different date. And this, let 
me restate, is a sufficient reply to those who, admitting the 

o 



194 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EAHTH. 



Divine origination of nature, would have every subsequent 
stage to be a mere natural development; partly, on the 
ground of saving the Divine dignity from the supposed 
trouble or unworthiness of a more direct interposition. 
For this view, besides involving an anthropomorphic misap- 
prehension of the nature of the Divine Greatness, implies 
that it may be worthy of the Deity to devise a law in 
eternity, which yet it would be unworthy of Him to carry 
into effect in time ; and thus overlooks the fact, that in re- 
lieving the Deity from an act of immediate creation, it 
does so by supposing that He has yet from eternity de- 
signed and contemplated the results of such a creation. 

4. But the idea of a natural and necessary development 
of matter, is a mere assumption. While the fact of the 
Divine origination of matter, at first, is itself a strong pre- 
sumption in favour of the Divine origination of every new 
use subsequently made of it. In accordance with which, 
we find that fossil vegetation exhibits no indication of a 
regular development of species, from the most simple on- 
wards to the most perfect. The dicotyledon of the present 
day is not derived from the rudimentary acotyledon of the 
palaeozoic series ; even then they grew together side by side. 
Nor has the rudimentary vegetable of that day been ab- 
sorbed in higher forms, and gone out of existence ; it exists, 
unchanged, by the side of the ancient dicotyledon. The 
vegetable kingdom of the early carboniferous group, re- 
quires to be distributed into three classes ; nor does the 
botany of the present day require a fourth class. Even 
from that early period, the plan, or outline, of vegetable 
life bad been laid down by the Designing Will. 

5. Such direct creative interposition is to be inferred 
also from the ground there is to believe that plants have a 
character of their own, more or less independent of mere 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



195 



external influences. That they are related to all the great 
pre-existing laws and elements of inorganic nature, we 
have shown ; but, according to the views of the best bota- 
nical writers, they have characteristics which no external 
forces can account for, and which can be ascribed only to 
independent laws. 1 " Deciduous plants, when carried 
across the equator, will put forth leaves at the approach of 
winter; evidently because it is their habit so to do after 
settled intervals of time." In the experiments made by 
Decandolle on this subject, it was found that some plants 
kept their habits, without regarding either the artificial 
light or heat to which they were subjected. And it is 
admitted to be among " the unsatisfied problems of geology" 
to account for " the uniformity of the types of organic life 
over great areas, accompanied as it was by considerable 
diversity of local association." 2 Great as is the power of 
plants to adapt themselves to external changes, they have 
laws and a constitution of their own. Stimulated they 
may be, but not forced. In their creation, a principle was 
superadded to all that had gone before, subjecting matter 
to itself, but not to be subjected by it. 

6. And is not the same direct interposition to be inferred 
from the apparent want of correspondence observable be- 
tween the inorganic conditions of existence, and the organic 
existences themselves? That the appearance of organic life 
has been made by the Creator to depend on certain inor- 
ganic conditions, we hold to be a point settled. But we 
submit that it is not consequent on this, that the presence 
of the mere physical conditions shall always be followed by 
the presence of the life. According to creation by natural de- 
velopment, indeed, life must follow the physical conditions, 

1 Decandolle's Physiologie, vol. ii. 478. • 

2 Mr. Philips, at British Association. 1845. 

o 2 



196 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



directly, necessarily, universally, and to the utmost amount ; 
for these conditions are supposed to be the only causes of life. 
If the new creation did not invariably follow the new con- 
dition, the law of natural development would be at an end ; 
for it is supposed to act inevitably. And yet such apparent 
irregularities do exist. For example, some families of land 
plants, as the coniferae and the palms, have pervaded all 
the series of formations. Why did the physical conditions 
of the secondary series fail to reproduce the sigill arise, as 
they did the coniferae, both of which had existed toge- 
ther in the first series? Or what was there in many of the 
plants of the second series less suited to the temperature, 
and other conditions of the first series, than in those of the 
first to the conditions of the second, throughout which they 
both afterwards concurrently flourished without any appa- 
rent deterioration? While we believe it to be fully esta- 
blished that organic life does not exist, except in connexion 
with certain physical conditions, we believe also that the 
conditions are not the causes of life, and may exist without 
it ; and that the Will which originated the first, is the 
cause of the second. 

7. In the organic, then, as well as in the inorganic world, 
all that we can recognise are conditions and laws ; and only 
some of these. The originating cause in each alike was the 
Divine volition. The same free scope which existed when 
matter was yet to be created, as to everything which re- 
lated to its properties and arrangements, existed in relation 
to the introduction of vegetable life. The precise period of 
its commencement; the plan of the great system; the va- 
rieties which it should include ; and the laws of its histori- 
cal and geographical distribution; all are referrible to " the 
good pleasure of His will," in whose purpose it is allowed 
to have originated. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



197 



XYI. 

Ultimata. — If organic life be thus dependent on the will 
of the Creator, we may expect to find that it reveals the 
existence of ultimate truths. Accordingly, after all the in- 
quiries into the phenomena of organization, if the question 
recurs, what is life ? or, what is the cause which produces 
these effects in living bodies? or, what is the principle 
which unites all these organic functions in the single result 
called life ? we are as far as ever from being able to fur- 
nish an explanation. We have only described some of the 
phenomena. The thing itself is indefinable. 

1. The organs by which life acts, may be anatomically 
examined, and correctly classed ; but life is something- 
independent of them all : for not one of them is universal 
in organized nature, and therefore is not essential to the 
vital force. The functions of these organs may be known, 
and the chemistry of their operations be silently and perse- 
veringly watched ; but the principle of that chemistry, the 
cause of these functions, are meanwhile presupposed and 
unappr cached. The " proximate organic principles " which 
the chemistry of life produces, and submits to our examina- 
tion, may be minutely analysed and correctly named; but 
they have been produced " in circumstances which we cannot 
imitate, and, in fact, do not understand." They are, at 
best, only proximate principles; effects, which refer us 
to the existence of a cause, the nature of which they do not 
reveal; their very number and diversity not explaining, 
but multiplying the mysteries in which it is involved. The 
little " nucleated cells" evolved from these proximate prin- 
ciples, and by the development of which the organic mass 
is supposed to be enlarged, may be known and truly 
described ; but this is something already existing ; the cause 



198 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



which has led to it is still presupposed. The analogy be- 
tween certain crystalline, and certain vegetable forms, may 
be interesting and familiar ; but if those crystalline forms 
be referred to electric action, here is something which deals 
with electricity, and employs it; or, if they be referred to 
the form or quality of the ultimate atoms, here is something 
which subordinates both. Organization is, as we have seen, 
not an affair of outward form merely, but of inward struc- 
ture. Admitting even the possibility of the artificial imi- 
tation of some of the proximate principles, and of the cells 
or globules of organic life, still they are inorganic principles 
and globules; the very absence of the vital power shows 
that it is something distinct from form and elementary com- 
position, though it may employ both, and that these artifi- 
cial imitations are not organization. 

2. Vegetation involves an orderly series of processes. 
And all that the physiologist can do is to describe the results 
of each, and the order in which they occur. Having done 
this, he is said to have explained the subject ; but all that 
he has done is to state what takes place ; how it has taken 
place, is as mysterious as before. He shows you the circu- 
lation of the sap, but the force which circulates it is pre- 
supposed. He takes a flower, and discloses all that has 
taken place in order to its production, since he deposited the 
seed in the earth; but with that seed he deposited an 
already existing principle which he cannot disclose. He 
has told you only of laws ; but with each law he has left a 
cause unexplained. Like the astronomer looking at his 
supposed nebula, let the physiologist trace back the process 
of organization as far as he can, he cannot detect it in its 
primary state; he has to refer it "back to some previous 
state, out of which it appears to have emerged impercepti- 
bly and inexplicably." He sees the phenomena of life only 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



199 



after it has begun to work. Life itself is presupposed and 
ultimate. 

3. Now organic life, like inorganic matter, is to be 
viewed, first, as an object, or in its relation to space : and 
the question arises, how came it really and objectively to 
be ? What relation did the Divine power and wisdom bear 
to its creation ? We may be able to describe the organiza- 
tion in which life is developed. But, having done this, and 
having traced the organization back to the seed, and 
searched the very elements of the seed itself, we find that 
we have reached an impassable barrier. It contains nothing 
in itself to account for its own origination, as a living 
organific power. And could we have looked on the first seed 
that germinated, or the first vegetable creation that lived, 
we should have felt, instinctively, that the only ground of 
its existence must be the will of God. 

4. But if the first moment of its existence revealed a wise 
Creator; the second moment revealed a Providence, for 
vegetable life was seen in relation, not only to space, but 
also to time — it continued. Organic processes were constant 
and universal. What was the Divine relation to the vital 
forces implied in all this new kind of activity ? Here we 
come to ultimate laws. For in tracing the sequences of 
organic phenomena, we find a series of laws, each of which 
is related to all the rest ; and all of which refer us to a cause 
of which they are only the results, or the means of mani- 
festation. And the only conclusion warranted is, that the 
continuance of vegetable life, no less than its origination, 
has its ground in the will of God. We are as unable to con- 
ceive of a self-sustained, as of a self-originated organization. 
Dependence is not less its characteristic, in relation to time, 
than it is in relation to space. The regularity of the 
organic processes, so far from denoting the absence of the 



200 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



Great Agent, is the very circumstance which indicates His 
presence. It is the only way in which we can conceive of 
His agency. The laws proclaim the presence of the Law- 
giver. 

5. Life, then, as imparted in creation, and revealed in 
the phenomena of organization, is something distinguishable 
from the phenomena or laws which reveal it. We may, 
indeed, know nothing of the vital principle, but by the 
operation of these laws ; just as the properties of matter as 
created, are disclosed to us only by the sequences of matter 
as continued. But, as the laws of matter presuppose its 
properties, so the phenomena of life presuppose the life which 
it reveals. 

XVII. 

Necessary Truth. — The existence of ultimate truth, re- 
minds us of the law which prepares us to recognise the 
existence of necessary truth. 

1. In the former inorganic stage, we saw matter take 
possession of space ; and we saw that, besides implying the 
pre-existence of space as a necessary condition, it implied 
the necessary existence of the Divine Power both as condi- 
tion and cause. Here, we see life take possession of matter ; 
and we cannot but feel that the idea of a Living Cause is 
indispensable. The contrary is impossible. Such a cause 
might have been inferred, indeed, from the creation of 
inorganic matter ; but the existence of organic life proclaims 
and represents it. 

2. In the laws of organic phenomena, too, we recognise 
proofs of the wisdom of God. We see a vast and compli- 
cated system of means employed for the attainment of 
certain ends. And thus, if the creation of organic life, in 
its relation to space, implies the necessary existence of a 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



201 



Living Cause, the laws of its existence as related to time, 
imply the necessary wisdom, as well as the life-giving 
power of the Creator. We cannot but conceive of that 
Living Wisdom as existing prior to all objective manifesta- 
tion, and independently of it. As condition, its activity from 
eternity was only subjective; as cause, it has now become 
objective also. Here then we have the subjective living 
wisdom, and the objective ; for that which was possible, has 
become real. The nature of Him who is " the Life," begins 
to be manifested Things not only are, they live; and live 
by means which give us a deeper insight than we possessed 
before, into the necessary perfections of the Divine Creator. 

XVIIL 

Change. — This stage of the Divine procedure not only 
prepares us to look for another, but, according to our 
theory, the law of ever-enlarging manifestation is itself 
regulated by a law determining the time and manner of 
each successive stage of the advancing process. 

1. That the process itself cannot consistently terminate, 
is evident ; for then the proof of the Divine sufficiency for 
unlimited manifestation would terminate with it. That it 
was not yet to terminate, might now have been inferred from 
a new analogical ground ; for not only was the activity of 
the inorganic universe from the first the activity of pro- 
gression but the addition of vegetable life furnished an 
entirely distinct ground of expectation for the addition of 
yet another stage. Nor can we conceive ourselves as sur- 
veying this second display of the Divine resources, without 
becoming conscious of the persuasion that we shall " see 
greater things than these," and that these are intended, in 
some way, to prepare for them. 

2. But what was it which made the time of the actual 



202 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



change, the right time? For here again I may remark, 
that even those who adopt the hypothesis of development 
by natural law, must admit that every stage of develop- 
ment was prospectively included in the plan of the Law- 
giver; and that for the same reason that any stage was 
designed to occur at all, there must have been a right time 
for its occurrence, or a reason which made the period of 
its actual occurrence the right period. And the law with 
which we have now to do, respects the nature of that 
reason. 

3. Believing that no such change takes place capri- 
ciously; but as either the law of progression, or of the 
end, or the coincidence of the two, requires, we have to 
remark, first, on the claims of the law of progression. 
What these were, was declared by the event. The intro- 
duction of vegetable life was designed by the Creator to 
become subservient to animal enjoyment. As soon, there- 
fore, as the vegetable and other foreseen conditions were 
present, the law of progression might be expected to re- 
ceive a new illustration in the addition of animal existence, 
provided no other law intervened. I am aware, indeed, 
that by those who advocate natural development, the pre- 
sence of certain conditions would alone constitute, not 
merely the fitness of the occasion for the addition of animal 
life, but even necessitate such addition. But this is a 
position which, from the nature of the case, can never be 
susceptible of proof. And is it philosophical to conclude 
that, because a thing does not exist without certain con- 
ditions, therefore it must exist with them? That certain 
events may invariably follow the presence of certain condi- 
tions, I do not deny ; for it may be the law of the Divine pro- 
cedure that they shall do so ; and, further, the Creator may 
have arranged that this coincidence in the law of progres- 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



203 



sion shall fall in with the law of the end, and, indeed, with 
other laws also of which we know nothing. I object only 
to the manner in which what may be, is confounded with 
what must be — the possible with the necessary, and in 
which conditions are gratuitously promoted into the place 
of causes. 

4. Admitting, then, that the organic creation was not 
originated without a design, or, that it forms part of the 
Divine plan ; and that, as a great system of adaptations of 
means to ends, it proclaims a Divine designer, the question 
arises whether or not that ultimate end was, in any sense, 
adequately attained. That it had not been attained, when 
animal life commenced on the earth, if such attainment 
depended on the diversity and multiplication of vegetable 
structures to the utmost extent possible, is evident; for 
this multiplication was most probably much greater after 
that period than it was before. Then, was the original 
creation of organic life, taken in connexion with its sub- 
sequent reproductions, and successive enlargements, prior 
to the creation of man, adequate to warrant the inference 
of the all-sufficiency of Creative wisdom? Does the long- 
series of vegetable worlds, including the present, exhibit 
all the changes, and consequent displays of Design, which, 
under the circumstances, (such as the geological revolu- 
tions and the size of the planet,) might have been ex- 
pected ? 

5. In order to answer this question otherwise than 
inferentially and approximately, we should require to be 
put in possession of data which can never come within our 
reach — to know possibilities, for the comprehension of 
which our minds would need a different constitution. It 
is enough for us to yield ourselves up to the inferences and 
impressions flowing from the data which we do possess. 



204 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



If, for example, it should appear that the inorganic crea- 
tion, in all that closely woven web- work of mechanical, and 
chemical operations, of which man, as yet, has unravelled 
so little, was only a world of prospective contrivances for 
the coming of organic life: if, further, it should appear 
that vegetable life has been adapted to every inorganic 
change and variety — to the bare granite and the recent 
cinders of the volcano, to the emerging coral-reef and the 
dark recesses of the mine, to the sand of the torrid zone 
and the perpetual snow of the poles — as if Wisdom rejoiced 
in the occasion which such apparent difficulties and ex- 
tremes afforded for displaying the fertility of its resources; 
showing that the conditions, destructive of one form of life, 
can be made essential to the existence of another, and that, 
in its hand, the same general plan admits of diversity of 
adaptation without end: and, further, that of all this 
variety, there has existed a fulness to which Wisdom alone 
has assigned the limits, what more can be necessary to 
assure us of the all-sufficiency of the Creative Wisdom? 

6. Now, the truth of these suppositions are undeniable. 
Vegetable physiology brings to light the fact that, even if 
the material universe had been constructed solely for the 
reception of organic life, it could not have been more 
studiously adapted, in all its great elements and operations, 
to the attainment of the end, than it actually is. The 
most scientifically constructed plant-house, and the most 
elaborate apparatus that may be introduced into it, can 
only pretend, not to originate, but simply to take advan- 
tage of, two or three of these natural adaptations. But 
the wonders of the great Nursery are only as yet in process 
of discovery. " The half has not been told." Scientific 
botany has arranged between eighty and a hundred thou- 
sand species of plants ; and still it continues to add to the 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



205 



number. Literally, its 11 field is the world." Every clod 
of earth belongs to it, and the floor of the ocean. While 
fossil geology brings to light the remains of departed 
floras, and suggests the idea of species not only extinct 
but effaced;- — as if, amidst the prodigality of evidence of 
design still extant, some of the earlier illustrations might 
well be spared. The abundance of vegetable life is equal 
to its variety. " In order to form an idea of the luxu- 
riance of vegetation in the former world, and of the masses 
of vegetable matter accumulated by running water, and 
which have certainly been converted into coal in the humid 
way, I remind the reader that in the Saarbriick coal field 
there are 120 seams of coal lying one over another, exclu- 
sive of a host of smaller seams ; and that some of these 
single seams of coal are of thirty, and others of more than 
fifty feet thick, as at Johnstoun in Scotland, and Creuzot in 
Burgundy .... It is also well to remember, that these coal 
measures are indebted for no inconsiderable portion of their 
materials, not to the trunks of mighty trees, but to small 
grasses, and to frondiferous and low cryptogamic vege- 
tables." 1 At the mouth of the Missisippi, and in the " wood 
hills" of the icy Siberian Sea, the same process of vegetable 
accumulation is, probably, still going on. But to estimate 
the existing fulness of vegetable life, it is necessary to 
remember the mighty forests of the tropical zone of South 
America. And yet, could the whole be surveyed, it would 
be as nothing compared with the seeds of organic life en- 
closed in the crust of the earth. Kneaded up with the 
inorganic material, to an unknown depth, are the germs of 
vegetation ; and only awaiting exposure to air and light, in 
order to " bring forth and bud" as if the hand of God had 
but just sown them. And, not only so, but almost every 
1 Humboldt's Cosmos. 



206 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



variety of material is found to contain a corresponding 
variety of vegetable existence. So that not only may it be 
said of organic life that its " field is the world," but world 
upon world. 

7. Here, then, is evidence enough to justify the conclu- 
sion that the Wisdom which has shown itself sufficient for 
all this unexplored range of organic life, is sufficient for 
every change of the same kind of which the earth, or even 
the material universe, admits. The question, be it observed, 
is not whether this range, extended as it is, might not have 
been more extended ; this demand is of a kind which no 
range short of infinity could satisfy. For even if, instead 
of a hundred thousand species, every individual plant had 
been different from all the rest, and every inch of the earth's 
surface had been crowded with vegetable life, the question 
might have been still raised whether the earth itself might 
not have been larger, and so on, ad infinitum. In other 
words, it is to ask for that, which, if possible, would yet be 
useless. But the question is, whether the Creative wisdom 
displayed in the organic stage of the Divine plan, does not 
warrant the conviction of its sufficiency for the same kind 
of display to any possible extent. And every one who con- 
siders the question must feel that it admits of only one 
reply. And hence it is that we can hear of the discovery 
of new vegetable species, not only without surprise, but as 
if the fact merely gratified a feeling of antecedent proba- 
bility. Nor can we doubt that if the earth were to be once 
more stripped of its verdant robe, and if the conditions of 
organic life were to be afterwards restored, that, sooner or 
later, it would again look like " the garden of the Lord." 
And, with the same confidence, we feel assured that, if simi- 
lar conditions exist in other worlds, the same wisdom which 
has so often " renewed the face of the earth," is sufficient 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



207 



to clothe them with similar beauty, in diversities without 
end. 

But, if the design of the organic creation be to illustrate, 
in the sense explained, the sufficiency of the Creative wis- 
dom, we shall be ready to admit that not until the evidence 
of such sufficiency was complete, could " the fulness of time " 
for man's creation have arrived. Not until it had existed 
long enough to accumulate all the proofs of the truth which 
it was designed to teach, would the " set time " arrive for 
the coming of the creature destined to interpret that truth. 
And whatever may be the apparent hardihood of this view, 
it entirely vanishes when we remember that He who forelaid 
the plan of the whole creative series, makes every part to 
harmonize with every other part, and the whole to subserve 
the ultimate end. 

XIX. 

Reason of the Method. — In passing from the method of 
the Divine procedure to the reason of the method, we find it 
to be two-fold ; — being founded partly in the constitution 
of the creature by whom the method is to he studied, and 
involving His ivell-being, and partly in his destiny, and 
so involving, in addition, the glory of the Divine Creator. 

1. As to the first part of the reason; it would be easy 
to show that, if the organic world is to be made subservient 
to human interests, the laws of the method are indispensable. 
Without the uniform sequences and dependencies, for 
example, which vegetable life exhibits, its cultivation would 
be impossible; indeed, without amenableness to law, it 
would not be even useable. 1 And how impossible would it 

1 See on this subject Professor Liebig's " Organic Chemistry in its 
application to Agriculture and Physiology;" a work devoted especially 
to an explanation of the proper food of plants, and to the modes in 
which, and the sources from which, they receive this nourishment. In 



208 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



be for man to turn his observations to any scientific ac- 
count, were it not for those relations of analogy and affinity 
which arrange the diversified members of the botanic 
kingdom in an orderly plan? 

And that which especially marks the wisdom of the 
Creator is the manner in which the medium is observed be- 
tween bewildering irregularity on the one hand, and an 
uninstructive and depressing sameness on the other. Only 
imagine these laws to be so obvious as to cost man no 
effort ; and they would yield him no interest. On the con- 
trary, suppose them to be but slightly illustrated by fact, 
or to be inextricably entangled by circumstance; and they 
would defy his utmost diligence and application. In the 
first instance, he could not be said to learn; and in the 
second, nature could not be said to teach. But as it is, 
his position somewhat resembles that of a child into whose 
lap its parent has thrown a handful of flowers selected for 
a nosegay, but intentionally mingled together, that the 
taste of the child might be cultivated in their re-arrange- 
ment ; the parent taking care that the exercise shall not 
be so difficult as to be hopeless, nor so easy as to be use- 
less. The organic world is so constituted that, without 
either forcing its lessons, or dispensing with attention, it 
invites observation, and rewards well-directed diligence of 
every kind and degree. Its "doctrine drops as the rain; 

harmony with the subject of this chapter he remarks: — " Innumerable 
are the aids afforded to the means of life, to manufactures and to com- 
merce, by the truths which assiduous and active inquirers have dis- 
covered and rendered capable of practical application. But it is not 
the mere practical utility of these truths, which is of importance. 
Their influence upon mental culture is most beneficial; and the new 
views acquired by the knowledge of them enable the mind to recognise 
in the phenomena of nature proofs of an infinite wisdom, for the un- 
fathomable profundity of which human language has no expression." 
-p. 6. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



209 



its speech distils as the dew." But its instructions are all 
optional ; man receives them only if he will. 

2. And as to the second part of the reason, if organized 
nature is to be construed by man so as to subserve the 
ultimate end, all the laws which we have considered as be- 
longing to the method of the Divine procedure are, in one 
respect or another, indispensable. In the absence of law, 
it would be impossible for the mind to infer a Law-giver. 
In the absence of all signs of dependence, organic nature 
would be regarded as proclaiming its independence. But, 
here, every vegetable family has its place; every species, 
its type; every function, its order; every fibre, its pre- 
scribed rule. Here life is found in union with organization ; 
a union, however, which can only be shown to be uniform, 
not necessary. And here, everything relating to the com- 
mencement of organic life, to its progress, and to the filling 
up of the great plan on which it is formed, must be re- 
solved into the will of the Divine Creator; for even those 
who believe only that laws were originally impressed on 
matter of which all this is the developed result, must admit 
that the entire result was in the original contemplation and 
choice of the Deity. 

3. But here again the evidence needs to be balanced be- 
tween two extremes. If the proof of a Divine agency 
were to be so obvious and cogent as to leave man no option 
whatever as to the nature of his conclusions respecting it, 
this would be as unsuited to his moral freedom, as the ab- 
sence of all or of adequate proof would be to his rational con- 
viction — a consideration which applies to every department 
of the Divine procedure ; and which, if seasonably remem- 
bered and applied, would answer many objections, and 
solve many difficulties, respecting it. Accordingly, the 
evidence is supplied in " weight and measure." It is as 

p 



210 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



reserved to one, as it is open and communicative to another. 
To some, the laws of organic life answer the purpose only 
of self-manifestation ; and seem to publish both their own 
sufficiency and the sagacity of the party discovering or ap- 
prehending them; 1 while to others, they convincingly 
declare that their " sufficiency is of God." To each class 
the same evidence is supplied. For the former, it is not 
so scanty as to excuse their impiety ; nor for the latter, so 
overpowering as to constrain belief, and make virtue im- 
possible. It is so graduated and adjusted, that it may be 
regarded as having formed, from the first, a mute prophecy, 
both of the voluntary constitution of the being destined to 
interpret it, and of the end it was designed to answer. 

XX. 

The ultimate end. — According to our theory, both the 
laws of the method, and the 'proximate reason of it, will 
find their ultimate end, in relation to this stage of the 
Divine procedure, in contributing to prove the all-sufficiency 
of the wisdom of God. 

1. But first, having distinctly stated that each preceding 
display of the Divine perfection may be expected to be 

1 Dr. Macculloch has well remarked of certain philosophers, who 
never " think of a designing and wise Creator — they search, and when 
they have found, they produce the discovery as a proof of their own 
wisdom. They seek for ends and uses; and they boast of having seen 
the means and the end, as much as if they had intended the end and 
invented the means. Yet they who boast, should not forget that there 
was a Wisdom which anticipated their own ; that had there not been a 
Sagacity which planned, their own sagacity in tracing the execution 
would never have appeared; that they are but students, and that in 
their pride of assigning the wisdom and the design, they ought not to 
overlook Him, the Designer and the Wise, their own designer, and the 
great Being who gave them the power of knowing Himself, their 
God."— Vol. i. p. 607. 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



211 



brought forwards and enlarged through each successive 
stage of creation, and having assigned the grounds of this 
expectation, we have to begin by remarking on its fulfil- 
ment in the continued exercise of the Divine Power. 
During the entire period, from the introduction of organic 
life to the creation of man, all the pre-existing forces of in- 
organic matter continued in activity. The argument for 
the power of God, therefore, remained unabated; rather it 
was augmented during every moment of the period. 

2. But here were new displays of power. It originated 
and introduced the new principle of life. It was present 
in the motion of every plant that waved ; as well as in the 
mechanical and chemical action constantly going on for 
the production of soil. It was present in the mountain 
cedar braving the tempest by resistance ; and in the slender 
flower evading the storm by elasticity : in the plenitude of 
vegetable life which crowded the wilderness; and in the 
lichen of the almost indestructible rock which appears to 
live on through ages, the only form of life in a region of 
desolation. It proclaimed its presence in the molecular 
movements and ceaselessly diversified currents of every 
minute cellular structure ; and in the organic force which 
pumps up the sap and diffuses it throughout the most 
gigantic and branching tree. If, for example, as it can be 
shown, a tree of thirty-three feet high, requires a pressure 
of " fifteen pounds upon every square inch in the section 
of the vessels of the bottom, in order merely to support 
the sap," how great must be the power which propels the 
sap upwards so as to supply the constant evaporation of the 
leaves. And if this be true of an individual tree, who 
shall calculate the amount of the forces which came into 
play with every outburst of vernal life during the era of 
the great coal formations ! 

p 2 



212 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



3. But power is here seen waiting on Wisdom; laying 
out her resources to be employed as adaptations and 
means. Wherever we look we are impressed with the idea 
of difficulties overcome, difficulties originated as if for the 
purpose of overcoming them, — and overcome, not in one 
way merely, but in ways so gratuitously varied and multi- 
plied as if to impress us with the conviction of the inex- 
haustible resources of the Being who has overcome them ; 
and, further, that He actually intended to produce this im- 
pression. 

4. We have just been showing that the displays of 
power co-exist with those of wisdom, and are even multi- 
plied in her service. We have now to recognise the 
prospective contrivances of wisdom even in the inorganic 
world, where before we saw nothing but power. Take, for 
example, the fact that granite should have been selected 
from many other substances to constitute the great frame- 
work of the earth, in connexion with its peculiar chemical 
fitness for the support of vegetable life. Animals do not 
ultimately depend on vegetable food, more certainly than 
vegetables depend on mineral sustenance. Primarily, in- 
deed, they depend on the surrounding water, and on the 
moisture which bathes their roots : but experiment demon- 
strates that there are certain other bodies — such as potash 
and phosphoric acid, which are universally present in 
vegetable structures, and essential to their existence. Now 
there is satisfactory evidence to show that these substances 
formed specific ingredients in the granites of the ancient 
earth; and that, consequently, they were provided ages 
before the commencement of organic life. But in vain 
would this provision have existed, if, in addition, these 
granite masses had not been elevated to form the great 
mountain chains of the earth; for in this way only could 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



213 



that slow disintegration take place by which their liberated 
materials contribute to produce the fruit-bearing soil of the 
earth. Now who can fail to recognise here the bearing of 
one part upon another, the presence of conspiring means, 
of preparation and completion? 

5. We may notice, also, instances of the remarkable 
manner in which organic life has been adapted to pre- 
existing laws. Had the earth, for example, its astronomical 
year and its diurnal rotation? The entire life of annual 
plants agrees exactly with the former, and the circle of 
action in the perennial tribes with the latter. Is the force 
of the earth's gravity specific ? Then must the forces of 
organic life be precisely adjusted to it ; for, were they 
below a certain amount, the rate of vegetable circulation 
would stop ; or were they in excess, it would be accelerated 
in a manner equally destructive of life. Creative wisdom, 
however, has nicely adapted the minutest parts of vegetable 
structures to the mass of the earth on which they exist. 
Is matter endowed with the properties of tenacity, hard- 
ness, density, flexibility, and elasticity ? So exquisitely is 
the vegetable constitution adapted to all these, — not in a 
single way, but in a different manner for each species, — 
that a slight alteration in any one of these laws would 
require the reconstruction of the whole. The magnitude 
of the ocean and its extensive currents are related to the 
magnitude of the moveable atmosphere, the repository and 
the moving force of the clouds ; and both combine to the 
production of such a distribution of the temperature as is 
essential to vegetable life, and determines many of its 
forces. The laws of radiation, evaporation, electricity, all 
sustain vital relation to the organic economy ; while light, 
besides administering the necessary stimulus to its func- 
tions, paints and beautifies every flower that blows. 



214 



THE PBE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



6. But the same system of adaptations has re-appeared, and 
been applied, through a prolonged succession of geological 
changes; so that its accommodative power has been always 
receiving additional confirmations. Had we seen the earliest 
organic products of the primitive earth, we should most 
likely have concluded that the then existing condition of 
the globe was essential to their existence. But other con- 
ditions of the planet succeeded, and the mighty forests now 
entombed as coal formations came with them. And as 
other changes followed, plants, of forms and characters now 
unknown on the surface of the earth, succeeded; specimens 
of which were stored away in the grand natural Herbaria of 
the earth, as if reserved for the purpose of shaming us 
from setting limits to the Creator's power and wisdom. 

7. In speaking of the boundless variety of vegetable life, 
we may take the existing flora of the earth as a specimen 
of all those which have preceded it. The Divine Being 
might have clothed the earth with verdure, and yet have 
limited the whole vegetable variety to two or three species ; 
but between eighty and a hundred thousand species are 
already classed. Had we seen land-plants only, we should 
have considered the existence of aquatic plants an impossi- 
bility ; and yet forests wave at the bottom of the ocean. 
Had we seen them only in a fertile soil, we should have 
deemed such a soil essential to their existence ; but God has 
appointed the apparently insignificant lichen to live on the 
rock, and it eats for ages into a substance which defies the 
chemical and mechanical forces. From the sea-shores, from 
the bed of the sea, from the deep caverns of the earth, 
upwards, as the land rises, in stages, to the line of eternal 
snow, organic life is to be found diffused over the entire 
range. Is land to be rescued from the sea? A succession 
of plants effects the process, each giving place as soon as it 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



215 



has prepared the way for a superior species ; others, again, 
being ready to defend and retain the rescued territory. 
Did the Creator determine that the plant should be distin- 
guished by definite form? All the species are obviously 
constructed on a general plan ; but, while that plan is never 
lost sight of, the characteristic of figure, colour, fragrance, 
and duration, is diversified without end ; and, in many 
instances, as if for the sake of showing that, in the hands 
of Infinite Wisdom, any single idea admits of endless illus- 
tration. Are plants to grow by nutrition ? The food which 
they elaborate and store up is not of a single kind merely; 
in one tribe it is oil, in another fecula, in another liguine, 
in another sugar, in another gum, &c. ; while " an inter- 
minable catalogue of other substances may be extracted 
from the juices of different plants, all of which have been 
formed by secretion in some part or other of their struc- 
ture." Are they to be continued by reproduction? The 
modes of sustaining the feeble parent plants are so variously 
diversified, as if for the sole object of showing that such 
variety was practicable; some of these are supported by 
different kinds of hooks, others by voluble stems, by claws, 
by voluble leaves, by radicles, by tendrils, &c. The modes 
of protecting seeds comprise unnumbered inventions ; many 
of them so far from simple, that they would seem to be 
adopted only for the sake of demonstrating a power of in- 
vention. From some plants the seeds simply fall; from 
others, a mechanical force projects them to a distance ; others 
yield them to the power of the winds; and the seeds of 
others are winged for distant flight. 

8. Now, we do not say that this diversity and exube- 
rance of organic life, together with the complicated inor- 
ganic arrangements which it involves, scientifically demon- 
strates the absolute infinity of the Divine wisdom. If it 



216 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



did so, all the illustrations of wisdom exhibited in the sub- 
sequent stages of the Divine procedure would, as further 
evidence, be superfluous. A similar remark to this we 
made in the preceding Part, when inferring the extent of 
the Divine power from the evidence then before us. And 
from the advanced point we have now reached, we can see 
how great would have been our error if we had limited our 
views of that Power by the evidence afforded by that first 
stage. For, here we behold it putting forth fresh displays, 
and demonstrating that " the Creator of the ends of the earth 
fainteth not, neither is weary." And, in a similar manner, 
the illustrations of the Divine wisdom have been accumu- 
lating ever since, and in new departments of creation. In 
harmony with which fact, we repeat our conviction, that an 
infinite proof of infinite wisdom can be furnished to finite 
creatures, or be received by them, only by a progressive 
accumulation through infinite duration, and therefore can 
only be always in process. But we can conceive also of 
such a display of wisdom, within a space and a time not 
unlimited, as should furnish beings capable of reasoning 
from analogy, with abundant evidence of wisdom unlimited. 
Such an exercise of wisdom we believe to have been dis- 
played in the organic creation. 

9. In bringing this conviction home to the mind, it is 
to be remembered, as a fact of universal admission, that 
the spatial limitations of matter, and therefore the limita- 
tions of the uses made of it, are necessitated by the nature 
of matter itself. The material medium for exhibiting 
design is itself inherently conditioned by limits. So that 
we have to determine the question, what amount of evi- 
dence of design, exhibited under circumstances in which 
the medium of design itself forbids absolute infinity, we, 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



217 



as beings, constituted to infer more than we see, should 
deem an adequate illustration of wisdom unlimited. Now 
we think we are uttering a very sober supposition in say- 
ing, that the production of the first form of organic life 
that appeared, would be, in the estimation of superior intel- 
ligences, both the sole prerogative and the adequate illustra- 
tion of infinite wisdom. We can conceive of beings to 
whom that simple form would furnish a key to the material 
universe. For them, the full exposition of that single con- 
stitution would involve the exposition of the whole physical 
creation. But, that single specimen was accompanied or 
followed by a world of diversified organizations. It would 
have been in vain for man, had he then lived, to attempt 
the individual enumeration. Now, surely he could not 
have listened to such an exposition of organic life as that to 
which we have adverted, — a tale of ages, — for it must have 
included the mechanical and chemical history of our planet 
from the beginning ; could not have marked how all phy- 
sical science was presupposed by each organic form, and 
met in it ; how it stood the centre, not of a system merely, 
but of plan within plan, and system within system, with all 
the inorganic laws and elements, like angels, ministering to 
it; and that the same was true of every species, but with 
an endless diversity of details in each ; he could not have 
required ages of such occupation, in order to feel con- 
strained to admit, of the Divine Creator, that " His ways 
are past finding out!" 

Long as that early geological period may have lasted, it 
would doubtless have come to an end before the supposed 
exposition was completed, for every returning season would 
add to its subjects. While yet the investigation was in 
process, a new epoch would dawn, and a new world of or- 



218 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



ganic wonders come to view. And thus the illustrations of 
Creative wisdom would be accumulating on him in an 
ever augmenting ratio. Surely, as these worlds came be- 
fore him in a succession which promised no end, and yet 
every one of them exhibiting myriads of differences from 
all the rest, he would have confessed, unnumbered ages 
ago, "There is no searching of His understanding!" 
Further, when he found that each of these varying organic 
worlds as it came before him was not only perfect in itself ; 
and perfect from the first; but that each formed part of a 
plan which comprehended the whole; a plan presupposed 
by the whole series, and which had been invariably adhered 
to amidst all the endless modifications which its principles 
were always receiving; and a plan which, while retaining 
in their original and appropriate places the fossil remains 
of every extinct family, provided a definite place for every 
new creation, and every additional species, he could not 
forbear exclaiming, " Lord, how manifold are thy works; 
in wisdom hast thou made them all ! " In the imaginary 
position we have described, he could not but feel, as every 
onward step in the organic series brought with it an incal- 
culable amount of evidence of the Divine wisdom, to be added 
to all the accumulations of the past, that the Being who had 
designed all this could have covered the earth, had it been 
ten times larger than it is, with a proportionate enlarge- 
ment of the organic plan; that, if He has not clothed 
every distant star with vegetable life, it is not owing to 
any limit or exhaustion of His designing power ; and that 
the organic worlds of past time are only a specimen of the 
• manner in which He could go on varying the details of or- 
ganic adaptations for ever. And when he saw that there 
was no prospect of an end to His designs ; and remembered 



ORGANIC LIFE. 



219 



that, as the Divine power of the inorganic stage had been 
brought on into the organic, so the Divine wisdom of the 
organic stage would probably receive fresh illustrations in 
some new economy, he would feel that he was in the presence 
of wisdom all-sufficient, and acknowledge, " Great is the 
Lord, and of great power; His understanding is infinite!" 



FIFTH PART. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



The Third Stage of the Divine Manifestation: 

POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS. 

Let it be imagined that another extended period has 
elapsed since we took our last survey of creation, and be- 
held the wisdom of God as displayed in the wonders of 
vegetable life. It seems but natural that the view, so far 
from leading us to conclude that we had reached the ulti- 
matum of Divine Manifestation, would have awakened 
rather an expectation of beholding ulterior displays. The 
Being, we might have said, whose Power called this visible 
universe into existence, and whose Wisdom has ever been 
conducting it from one stage to another, till it is literally 
organizing its elements and exhibiting them in the posses- 
sion of life, can surely know no limits to His operations, 
but such as the same Wisdom may see fit to prescribe. The 
use which He had made of matter when last we looked on 
the scene of creation, seems to warrant the conjecture that, 
if life can be added to matter, something equally wonderful 
may be added to life. What if that addition should con- 
sist of enjoyment! Who can say but that in the revolution 
of ages, the period may come when forms of organized 
being may not only live, but move and be happy ! 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



221 



1. Another visit to the object of our meditations is at 
length permitted us ; and a scene opens to our view which 
compels us to exclaim, " How great is His goodness !" For 
the sake of illustration, let the season of our supposed visit 
be fixed, long after the new era of animal existence had 
commenced, yet before the time of the Adamic creation; 
and let it be imagined that the various changes which, at 
long intervals, had occurred since our last visit, were all 
laid open to us. We should find that not only had the 
great change itself, which had been the subject of our con- 
jectures, taken place — that vegetable life had been actually 
succeeded by animal enjoyment — but that even that enjoy- 
ment had reached a point which awoke the expectation of 
something greater still at hand. 

2. In the last Part, we saw vegetable life in the solitary 
and entire occupation — we say not for any length of time — 
of the advancing earth; we saw it in busy and diversified 
activity, preparing the way, in some places, both for the 
coming of higher orders of its own kind of life, by pro- 
ducing the necessary kind of soil, and for the Divine origi- 
nation of that animal life which it was destined to support. 
We beheld in its presence, and varieties, and rapid increase, 
an indication that the Great and Provident Householder 
was contemplating the arrival of unnumbered guests. Now 
we find, not only that they have come, but that, since their 
first appearance, the crust of the globe has undergone 
many a revolution, and has exhibited many a rich and 
varied surface of vegetable life, crowded with correspond- 
ing forms of animated existence. While, on each occasion, 
there is reason to believe the same order has been observed 
as to the subsequence of animal to vegetable life: an 
inorganic change being followed by a corresponding change 
in vegetation; and a change in vegetation followed by 
appropriate species of animated beings. 



222 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



L 

3. Goodness. — We have not yet to speak of the extent 
of the Divine benevolence to be inferred from this new 
form of existence. We have only, at present, to regard it 
as evincing the existence of goodness in the Creator. 
Hereafter we shall have to view it as furnishing new illus- 
trations also of the Creative power and wisdom already 
displayed in the preceding stages. But, for the present, 
we have only to do with the law, that every Divinely 
originated effect is a result, of which the supreme and 
ultimate reason is in the Divine nature. Now, here, in 
the animal kingdom, is a being constructed for enjoyment ; 
each of its movements yielding it gratification ; each of its 
senses an inlet to pleasure : and the whole is ever preparing 
the w^ay for greater enjoyment still, and finding happiness 
in the occupation. If the reason for the existence of this 
creature is to be sought in the Divine Creator, so also must 
be the reason of its enjoyment. Even if there were no 
purpose of manifesting the Divine All-sufficiency — if the 
creation were to be limited to a single creature — still, as 
every effect must be, in some sense, like its cause, that 
single creature would be, not indeed formally, but virtually, 
a manifestation, jpro tanto, of some property of the Divine 
Nature. But here is not merely an individual animal 
designed for enjoyment, nor a single species, but a world, a 
succession of worlds, filled with animal enjoyment. What 
property of the Divine Creator can this fact be supposed 
to manifest, but that He, " the Happy God," is good, or 
delights to impart happiness ! 

4. But is animal pain and death, especially the system 
of prey, compatible with the goodness of the Creator? We 
admit, first, that death, and even the system of prey, were 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



223 



originally intended by God. That the former was, will be, 
in general, readily admitted. In proof of the latter, we 
have merely to call attention to the fact that whole tribes 
of animals are expressly constructed for it. Their instincts 
and organization prepare them to be engines of destruction. 

5. But, then, secondly, the pain attending animal death 
by violence is apparently reduced to its minimum. For, 
1, the animal knows not that death is the extinction 
of life. Yet this is the very consideration which, in the 
case of man, gives to death all its bitterness. 2. As the 
animal knows not that it is ceasing to be, even when it is 
in the article of death, the difficulty is, in reality, reduced 
to one of physical pain merely. For as to its unconscious 
removal by death, no objection can be consistently raised 
against such an arrangement in the animal world, apart 
from the attendant pain, any more than against the corres- 
ponding arrangement in the vegetable world. And yet we 
there admired the wisdom which made a lower order of 
vegetable organization subservient by death to a higher 
order. Now, it should be remembered that the dying 
animal is as unconscious of its fate as the dying plant ; the 
only question to be resolved then, we repeat, is one of 
animal pain. 3. There appears to be a law of graduating 
sensibility pervading the animal kingdom; according to 
which, the degree of feeling diminishes as the organization 
descends in the scale; till, as we approach the point at 
which it touches the vegetable kingdom, it verges on total 
insensibility to pain. We are aware that in proportion to 
this reduction, must be the reduction also of animal enjoy- 
ment during life. But while death is the event of a 
moment, the enjoyment of life is to be multiplied by all the 
moments through which it is prolonged. Now, as the 
myriad tribes of these inferior orders constitute the staple 



224 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



of animal food, the arrangement provides, in so far, for the 
least possible amount of suffering; if, indeed, in their case, 
there be any suffering at all. 4. And then, as to one large 
animal preying upon another, though the sensibility is 
greater, it is subject to great deductions on some of the 
grounds already adverted to; and, by a simple, if not a 
special, contrivance, death is rendered as sudden, and 
therefore as easy, as possible. That the predatory animal 
should kill before it begins to devour, is a beneficent pro- 
vision. Some animals, it is well known, seize on the 
carotid arteries; in consequence of which, death speedily 
ensues. But the fact to which we allude is, that at one 
particular point of the neck, near the skull, a wound of the 
spinal nerve produces instant death, and apparently with- 
out suffering. Now, while man has discovered this fact 
only by experiment, the predatory animals have always 
made this part of the spine the object of attack. 

6. This animal death is an unavoidable part of the pre- 
sent constitution of creation. That constitution, we have 
shown, is progressive. In order to prepare the earth for 
man, it has been subjected to successive revolutions. The 
coal which forms our fuel is the produce of the destruction 
of plants, preserved from former worlds. But that provi- 
sion involved the death of all the myriad forms of life and 
enjoyment with which the woods of the ancient earth were 
crowded. And were unknown ages of animal enjoyment to 
be then withheld, because a physical revolution was even- 
tually, and for a time, to interrupt it? 

7. " But might not these revolutions have been spared; 
and the earth have been created at the first as we now find 
it?" In many respects, it is progressive still. The lichen 
and the moss produce a soil on which they can no longer 
live; new races of plants follow in succession, improving 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



225 



with every change, and occupying the once arid waste. 
Insects and reptiles at first possessed it, for it could main- 
tain nothing better ; but as it has improved, superior races 
have successively come into possession. Were ages of 
reptile and insect life to be withheld, because the progres- 
sive change involved their ultimate extinction, for a higher 
order of life ? 

8. " But might not such progression have been ren- 
dered unnecessary by making the entire amount of animal 
and vegetable life, as well as the state of the globe, 
unchangeable from the beginning?" The inquirer may 
not foresee that this is to ask, in effect, whether the Divine 
Being might not have adopted a mode of government 
entirely and essentially different from that which He has 
chosen ; for if one part be changed, every part must undergo 
a corresponding change. A world of immortal animals 
and plants ; a world that knew no climatic change, no 
seasons, no organic nor inorganic variety — a stagnant and 
unprogressive creation — would be as unsuited to the created 
as to the Creating mind. 

9. It might be suggested, also, that the continuance of 
the first created animals, and of everything else to corre- 
spond, would force on the attention of man evidence of their 
miraculous origin, too obvious and overbearing for a system 
of free agency. Besides which, (and this is the adequate 
answer to the implied objection,) such an unchangeable 
state of the animate creation would inconceivably diminish 
the amount of animal enjoyment. So that if the greatest 
degree and diffusion of such enjoyment be the object in 
view, the supposed change would defeat itself. That ob- 
ject can be obtained only by death, and especially by the 
system of prey. And shall the comparatively small amount 
of pain which that system involves prevent the incalculable 

Q 



226 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



amount of animal fecundity and enjoyment which it neces- 
sarily presupposes ? For the right view of this part of the 
question seems to be that, if animals are to be sustained by 
food, it is more consistent with the greatest amount of 
enjoyment that a certain proportion of that food should be 
animated, and be filled with pleasure until it is wanted, than 
that it should be inanimate and incapable of enjoyment. 

10. " Then might not animal life have been sustained 
on vegetable food alone?" Not only would such an 
arrangement — as we have seen — inconceivably diminish 
the amount of animal life and enjoyment which exists 
under the present arrangement, it would still leave death 
in the animal world, from the ten thousand sources of 
what are called accident. The foot of the ox would crush 
the insects in the grass ; the breeze waft them by myriads 
into the stream; and the evaporation and exhaustion of 
the lake leave the fish dead on the shore. Nothing less 
than perpetual miracle could have saved them from de- 
struction. And thus it is, in the all-related system of 
creation, that a single essential alteration would throw the 
whole into disorder, or be a virtual repeal of the entire 
scheme; and that every objection made against it involves 
an incalculable reduction of animal life and enjoyment, 
and is therefore incompatible with the Divine benevolence. 

11. " Then might not animal death have been unac- 
companied even with the smallest degree of suffering?" 
To this objection it seems to be a sufficient reply, that 
sensibility to pain is but the necessary alternative to sen- 
sibility to pleasure ; — that in few things is the beneficence 
of God more strikingly apparent than in the arbitrary 
manner in which he has arranged the animal system so as 
to economise pain; rendering each nerve belonging to a 
sense, for instance, sensitive to pain only from the excess 
of that impression which constitutes its peculiar function, 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



227 



(as the optic nerve from excess of light, but not from ex- 
cess of sound also, and that of the ear from excess of sound, 
but not of light;) — that this sensibility to pain operates as 
a necessary warning of danger, without which the animal 
would soon and inevitably perish ; so that its benevolent 
language is emphatically, u Do thyself no harm; take 
timely warning, and be happy;" — and that this possibility 
of pain could not be separated from the powers of sense 
without miraculous interposition, since it is the natural 
consequence of their functions. In addition to which, it 
should be observed, that where death is the simple con- 
sequence of age, the power of feeling does gradually cease 
before that event arrives. It is benevolently arranged that 
the prior departure of physical sensibility shall leave the 
final struggle to be carried on by the vital powers alone. 
So that the animal passes through a state of stupor into 
the sleep of death. 

12. According to the existing arrangements of creation, 
then, we behold, on the one hand, a system of provisions 
for securing the greatest amount of animal life ; for only a 
small proportion of it could find the necessary sustenance 
in any other way than that of prey : so that if animals, we 
repeat, are to be sustained by food, it is more consistent 
with the Divine goodness that a certain proportion of that 
food should be animated and filled with enjoyment until it 
is Wanted, than that it should be inanimate and incapable 
of pleasure. While, on the other hand, we find a number 
of remarkable provisions for reducing the pain involved in 
this system of animal enjoyment, to the smallest amount. 
Other and higher considerations we omit; such as the fact 
that animal sensibility forms a perpetual appeal to human 
sensibility, and is an important means of its improvement; 
and the manner in which the progressiveness of creation is 

Q2 



228 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



made subservient to the moral education and advancement 
of the beings to whom the Divine Manifestation is made, 
and worthy of Him who makes it. But we are content 
with having shown that a fact which might at first appear 
to diminish the claims of the Divine goodness, becomes, 
when viewed in its relations, an occasion for enlarging our 
conceptions of Creative benevolence, by showing that it 
secures animal existence and enjoyment to the greatest 
amount. 

13. And thus we have found, as the great Keason led us 
to expect, that every stage and object of creation is an ex- 
ponent of some characteristic of the Divine Nature. 

II. 

The past brougJtt forwards. — By the principle which 
requires that the laws of the past should be brought for- 
wards to the present, we are led to expect that the elements 
and results of the mineral and vegetable kingdom will be 
found brought on into the animal kingdom. 

1. Accordingly, though the animal is more withdrawn 
from the inorganic world, in point of rank, than the vege- 
table, it is still amenable to all those laws of inanimate 
matter which make it a part of the great material system. 
Here is the law of gravitation, by which the animal stands. 
Here is mechanical force, illustrating its laws, and dis- 
tributing its levers and fulcra, in a way which enables it to 
fulfil a thousand distinct purposes. The various secretions 
are complicated products of chemical action; though no 
artificial chemistry can imitate them. Here light and air 
find appropriate organs ; and electricity finds functions and 
properties expressly adapted for its development and action. 
The same laws which operate in the formation of the sili- 
cious crystals, here compose the skeleton of many zoophytes, 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



229 



and the calcareous crystals of many radiated animals. The 
simple symmetry of vertebrate animals, and the pen- 
tagonal symmetry of radiate animals, show that we are 
still investigating the productions of a Being who is acting 
on general principles, and filling up a plan. While the 
presence of organic life in its leading functions, nutrition 
and reproduction, shows that the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms are connected parts of a great whole. Of these 
facts, numerous illustrations will occur as we proceed ; none 
of them, however, tending to efface the great characteristics 
which separate the organic kingdom from the inorganic, 
and the animal kingdom from both. 

2. Thus we have seen pre-existing laws brought on into 
each succeeding stage of creation; the inorganic into the 
organic, and both these into the animal kingdom. 

III. 

Progress. — Our theory leads us to inquire next for the 
indications of progress, or for the introduction of new laws. 
And we find animal life superadded to the vegetable or 
organic life. 

Now it is obvious to remark that the comparison of the 
two must be drawn, not between the highest form of the 
one and the lowest form of the other, but between the 
more elaborate and perfect forms of each division. Were 
it our object to show the contiguity and continuity of the 
two organized kingdoms, we might then (as we shall here- 
after have occasion to do,) point out the principles which 
they have in common, and the points at which they appear 
to touch and even blend. But in illustrating their dis- 
tinctive characteristics, it would be as irrelevant to com- 
pare the lowest state of animal life with the highest form of 
vegetable life, as it would be to compare the lowest form 



230 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



of vegetation with the highest form of animal existence. 
Taking both, however, in their more perfect states, it will 
be found that the animal world differs from the vegetable, 
as widely as both these differ from the mineral. So marked 
is this difference, that were the various endowments which 
are distributed separately throughout the whole vegetable 
world to be concentrated in a single plant, the superiority 
of an animal, taken promiscuously from the herd, would 
still be instantly and abundantly manifest. 

2. When treating of vegetable physiology, we saw that 
organic life includes a series of functions by which the 
individual plant is preserved and the species continued. 
Now the physiology of animals discloses the fact, that they 
possess functions analogous to those of vegetables; and 
that, in addition to these, and distinct from them, they 
possess also the functions of a higher order of life, involv- 
ing sensibility and locomotion. Each hind of life has its 
own system of organs. The centre of the organic life is 
the heart ; of the animal life, the brain. The functions of 
organic life act continuously; those of animal life intermit- 
tingly. The former operate unconsciously and involun- 
tarily ; the latter not so. Such are some of the leading 
distinctions between the functions of organic and animal 
life. 

3. Accordingly, Bichat has shown (and the distinction 
is now generally accepted, 1 ) that the natural division of the 
complex animal system is twofold. Such parts as the 
heart, the intestines, and whatever acts independently of 
the will, and without the consciousness of the subject, be- 
long to what he denominates the vegetative or organic 

1 See Dr. Playfair's Abstract of Liebig's Report on Organic Che- 
mistry applied to Physiology and Pathology, read at the Meeting of 
the British Association, 1842. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



231 



life. While the senses, and the parts that bring it into 
voluntary relation with the external world, he calls the 
animal life. In the plant, life is endowed only, at most, 
with the property of excitability ; in the animal, it super- 
adds to this property, those of sensation, perception, passion, 
mental association, and impelled volition, followed by the 
expression of that volition in muscular contraction. To 
the plant is assigned the power of drawing nourishment 
from inorganic matter — mere earths, salts, and airs ; while 
the aliments by which animals are nourished are derived 
from animal or vegetable substances alone. Whence plants, 
says M. Richerand, may be considered as the laboratories in 
which nature prepares aliment for animals; and thus, we 
may add, emphatically seals their superiority. 

4. But what is the nature of that instinctive mind by 
which the animal is especially distinguished from the vege- 
table creation? The difficulty of giving what may be 
deemed a satisfactory reply to this question, arises, perhaps, 
not so much from any inherent profundity in the subject, 
as from our necessary ignorance, or inability to obtain the 
requisite data ; and from the prepossessions respecting it of 
those who are too much amused with the facts to examine 
the reasons, and who would rather " see in the shifting 
cloud what shapes they please." 

5. With a view to a reply, however, let us first mark 
the distinctions which exist among the functions of the ani- 
mal life itself. Analogous in office to the excitability of 
the plant, is the sensibility of the animal; though the latter 
is secured by a nobler arrangement than the corresponding 
property in the vegetable, and is made to answer additional 
ends. The animal is placed in new and wonderful relations 
to the external world by the organs of touch, hearing, sight, 
&c. United to these organs is a system of nerves which 



232 



THE PR.E-AD AMITE EARTH. 



conveys " sensations from the organs of sense inwards, so 
as to make these sensations the objects of the animal's con- 
sciousness." And in "the higher animals these impres- 
sions upon the nerves are all conveyed to one organ, the 
brain." Here then is one step towards an explanation of 
the functions of animal life. 

6. But what part of its physical structure is it by which 
the animal on receiving these impressions changes its pos- 
ture, its place, or its action? It is now satisfactorily ascer- 
tained that the immediate agents in such motions are the 
muscles. The property by which, under natural stimulus, 
they produce motion, has been termed irritability, or, more 
properly, contractility, from the manner in which they con- 
tract in the movement of the limbs. Here then, is another 
and a distinct step in the explanation. The sensations 
which the animal feels, and the muscular action which it 
consequently exerts, may be inseparably connected ; yet are 
they obviously distinguishable. Animal sensibility has the 
nerves for its organs; animal contractility, the muscles. 
The former is the passive; the latter, the active element of 
animal life. The former seems preparatory to whatever of 
instinct, intelligence, or mind, may be expressed by the 
latter. So that between these two extreme terms, lies the 
sphere of our present inquiry. 

7. Now, if we mark the effect directly consequent on certain 
sensations, we shall find that the animal appears to have 
received a notice or knowledge of the external object which 
has occasioned them. And the knowledge thus acquired is 
called perception. Here, then, is a connexion apparently 
mental. The knowledge resulting from the sensation, 
reveals the existence of animal mind ; of something, at least, 
which is not material, and which is not merely vital ; but 
is distinct from, and superior to, both. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



233 



8. If next, we mark the effect consequent on certain per- 
ceptions, we shall find that they are apparently followed by 
volitions: by which we mean that mental act which imme- 
diately determines muscular action. And thus there inter- 
venes between the two states of sensation and muscular 
contraction, the two links of perception and volition. So 
that " the cycle of operations which appear to take place 
when animals act in reference to external objects is this, 
sensation, perception, volition, muscular contraction;" 1 the 
brain being the seat or centre to which sensation tends, and 
from which volition proceeds. 

It is not intended by these remarks that the supposed 
mental part of this process clearly and consciously attends 
every animal action. At least, man, while performing the 
ordinary acts of breathing, walking, &c, is but faintly con- 
scious of the sensations and volitions which these acts 
imply. So that, in representing the sensation and muscu- 
lar action of animals as connected by the intermediate pro- 
cess of perception and volition, we must be regarded as 
stating only an extreme case. 

But, at this stage of the subject, the question arises, 
whether the cycle we have described includes the whole of 
the process belonging to the operation of animal mind or 
instinct ; or, whether, in addition to the four steps named, 
there may not be at least a fifth. In entertaining this 
question, indeed, we shall be anticipating that side of the 
subject which compares the animal with the human mind; 
yet, an adequate view of the inquiry will not allow us to 
postpone it. 

Now, it will be admitted, that, in the human mind, at 
least, one additional link intervenes between perception and 
volition. To this link we will give the general name, not 

' Dr. AVhevvell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, ii. p. 71. 



234 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



of understanding, but of reason; by which we mean, the 
power which the mind has of deducing universal truths 
from particular appearances, or of contemplating the ideal 
relations of things; and of willing or determining, in har- 
mony with such ideas, on the means necessary to the attain- 
ment of a proposed end. The question to be decided, then, 
may assume this simple form, is the volition of brutes deter- 
mined without the intervention of reason? 

The great end of instinct appears to be the preservation 
of life in the individual, and its perpetuation in the species. 
That man occasionally trains and turns it to a different 
account, does not affect the truth of the statement. During 
all the ages prior to human existence, and wherever the 
animal is left undisturbed by the influence of human reason, 
the direct and only reference of its instincts is to the conti- 
nuance of its race. And as this is their only obvious end, 
so the various ways in which it is gained, by the different 
species, is evidently predetermined by the organization 
peculiar to each. From which it is inferred by some that 
wherever there is life there is instinct; or, that instinct and 
life are co- extensive. 

9. Instinctive motions, viewed in this enlarged sense, are 
of different classes. First, there are those which belong to 
organic life, and which may be called vital. These are 
common to plants and animals; such as the involuntary 
processes of secretion and assimilation. But whether these 
processes should be regarded as instinctive or not, is imma- 
terial to the principal point at issue. 

10. Second, there are those instincts which call into 
action the muscles considered to be under the control of 
volition, and which may be called adaptive. Such are 
the actions of the new-born young of animals ; the beau- 
tiful and perfect nest-building of birds; and the mathe- 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



235 



matical cell-making of bees. These constitute the great 
class of actions, allowed, on almost all hands, to be strictly 
instinctive; and whose direct tendency is to the conti- 
nuance of animal existence. And yet, as far as the 
animal is promoting this object, it is evidently acting 
towards an end which is unknown to itself ; and, therefore, 
acting blindly. Agreeably to Paley's definition of instinct, 
it is acting " prior to experience, and independent of 
instruction," and, we might add, with a perfection which 
no instruction could teach, and no experience improve. 

11. And, thirdly, there are those which appear to be the 
result of experience, and which discover a power of selecting 
means for proximate ends according to varying circum- 
stances : these may be said to be mental. To this class of 
actions pertain those remarkable instances of animal sagacity, 
at the recital of which every one has been more or less inte- 
rested and astonished, and which have even suggested to 
some the extravagant idea of a system of animal metaphy- 
sics. The remainder of our remarks on instinct will be 
restricted to this class ; and our object will be to show that, 
even allowing some mental act to intervene, in such instances, 
between perception and volition, that intermediate act or 
operation is not what we intend by reasoning. 

1. That an action ascribable to reason in man, would, 
when performed by an animal, be hastily ascribed to the 
same principle, was antecedently probable. But to do this 
is to forget that just as rational, and quite analogous, would 
it be to infer, that because the bird constructs its nest by 
instinct, and the bee its cell, therefore, if a man attempts an 
imitation of that nest or that cell, he acts under the impulse 
of instinct also. 

2. If what the animal does evidently from instinct, is 
done better, and is of greater importance to the end of its 



236 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



existence, than that which it does from what some would 
ascribe to a higher faculty, it seems un philosophical to 
ascribe the superior efforts to the inferior principle, and the 
lower efforts to the higher principle. Now, probably, no 
one supposes that the lamb when it first follows its mother, 
and adapts its muscular action to the form of the ground, 
knows anything of the geometrical relations which the 
action involves ; or that the dog, in hunting only a certain 
kind of animal, and in crossing thefield repeatedly, to scent it, 
knows anything of the doctrines of Resemblance and of Space ; 
or that the bird, in its first flight, adjusting its effort to the 
distance and height of the flight with mechanical precision, 
really recognises the doctrine of force. All this is attributed 
to instinct. If then, under different circumstances, the animal 
should afterwards be found acting differently, consistency 
would seem to require that the difference should be ascribed 
to the provisional operation of the same instinct. If the bird 
on perceiving that the rising stream is approaching its half- 
finished nest, begins to build higher up the bank, it does 
but build on the spot where it would have placed its nest at 
first, had the waters then been as high as they have since 
become, and the end in both cases is the same — the conti- 
nuance of its species. 

3. If animals ever perform actions from instruction or 
experience, to which human sagacity would be unequal, it 
must result either from an instinctive intelligence, or 
(which would be proving too much,) from the exercise of a 
reason superior to man's. Now the great majority of the 
remarkable feats related of animals are of this description. 
The advocates of brute rationality, in their anxiety to do 
the best for their clients, adduce illustrations of so remark- 
able a nature as to show that no human reason would have 
been competent to such doings. Such, for example, are 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



237 



those instances in which an animal reads in the countenance 
of its master that he contemplates its destruction, and 
absents itself accordingly; or in which it knows, better 
perhaps than its master, that he is about to take a certain 
favourite walk, and runs on before to secure a share in the 
enjoyment; or, in which it finds its way straight home 
again when it had been taken by a circuitous route, and 
blindfolded, to a great distance. It was this want of dis- 
crimination in ascribing to reason, actions which had not 
afforded scope for reasoning, and which were too quick and 
too certain for anything but instinct, which led Descartes 1 
to say, " their doing many things better than ourselves 
does not prove them to be endowed with reason, for this 
would prove them to have more reason than we have, and 
that they are capable of excelling us in all other things 
also; but it rather proves them to be void of reason." 

4. If the most wonderful feats of animal sagacity are the 
result of human instruction, such instances only show the 
adaptiveness, within certain fixed and narrow limits, of the 
mental instinct. It was antecedently probable, in a world 
whose regularity is made consistent with variety, and whose 
every principle admits of diversified application, that the 
higher order of animals would find scope for their instinctive 
mind within a certain range. Even the plant has a con- 
fined power of adapting itself to circumstances. It is only 
in analogy with nature, that the dog, for example, the most 
instinctively sagacious of animals, if he become the com- 
panion of man, and so be made to feel indirectly the in- 
fluence of the human mind, should have all its better 
adaptations brought to light ; though itself entirely uncon- 
scious of the fact. Compared with its condition in the 
preadamite earth, the domestic dog is now in another world, 

1 In his treatise De Methodo. 



238 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



walking among gods. " Man is to him instead of a god, 
or melior natura" 1 And, while there is no ground to 
believe that, if the canine race existed a thousand ages be- 
fore man appeared on the earth, a single trait of the in- 
stinctive sagacity we now so much admire, had ever been 
exhibited by them, so neither is there reason to conclude 
that such sagacity is now the result of anything higher 
than an instinctive adaptiveness, of which they themselves 
have no intelligent perception. 

5. If, again, the power of performing extraordinary feats 
be hereditary, it cannot be the result of reason or of 
knowledge ; for knowledge and reason are not, in this way, 
transmissible. A paper of Mr. Knight's, read before the 
Eoyal Society, 2 shows that even the acquired faculties of 
dogs — the expertness they gain by teaching, descends in 
the race. " He found the young and untaught ones (spring- 
ing spaniels) as skilful as the old ones, not only in finding 
and raising the woodcocks, but in knowing the exact degree 
of frost which will drive those birds to springs and rills of 
unfrozen water." It is evident that such a fact cannot be 
adduced in favour of animal rationality; for the knowledge 
exhibited was strangely possessed without instruction or 
experience; and the reasoning, if there had been any, 
being destitute of data, must have been nothing less than 
a train of d priori speculation. 

6. Among the presumptive proofs against the rationality 
of animals, it is, we think, justly alleged that, while man 
can transmit the knowledge which he has gained by ex- 
perience, from generation to generation, conscious of its 
being experience, and that it is capable of receiving in- 
definite addition and application, the experience of animals, 

1 Bacon's Essay on Atheism. 
2 Quoted in Lord Brougham's Dissertations, &c, vol. i. p. 140. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



239 



confined at most within narrow limits, is incapable of 
accumulation and transmission. So that the bee and the 
beaver of to-day , build no better than the bee and the 
beaver of a thousand years ago. 

7. Another fact, of the same class, noticed by Adam 
Smith, is, that animals practice nothing approaching to 
barter. The most barbarous South Sea Islander will 
eagerly part with his rude ornaments and his food for a 
piece of iron. But even the animal which collects stores 
for the winter, shows that, in making this provision, he is 
impelled by instinct and not by foresight, for he is incapable 
of making an exchange which might exempt him from the 
trouble of collecting stores. 

8. But, perhaps, the great fact which lies against the 
rationality of brutes, is, that they are destitute of the 
power of speech. To say that they have voices, or inarti- 
culate language, adequate to the indication of certain 
appetites and passions, only increases the force of the 
remark. For how unlikely is it that they would be en- 
dowed with the means of expressing animal feelings, and 
be denied the power of imparting ideas, supposing them 
to have ideas to impart. And besides the inconsistency, 
perhaps few things would seem to impugn the goodness of 
the Creator more, than to withhold from a creature capable 
of even very limited reasoning, the faculty of expressing 
and imparting its reasonings. 

9. But, it may be asked, whether the power of inarti- 
culate signs which animals possess, may not be adequate to 
the communication of thought? " The intention and the 
capacity, of expressing thought" says W. Humboldt, 1 " is 
the only thing which characterizes the articulate sound; 
and nothing else can be fixed on to designate its difference 

1 Quoted in Lieber's Political Ethics, p. 12. 



240 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



from the animal cry on the one hand, or the musical tone 
on the other." To which it may be sufficient to add, that, 
arguing from analogy, inarticulate cries serve only for the 
expression of sensations and passions. Hence man, during 
infancy, when he has only feelings to express, has only the 
limited signs and cries of the animal. With the dawning 
of thought comes its appropriate vehicle, speech; and, 
although, afterwards, thought and feeling are generally com- 
bined in his vocal communications, it is worthy of remark 
that, in proportion as he essays to express uniningled 
feeling or passion, as in moments of great danger or pain, 
he invariably falls back on inarticulate sounds and inter- 
jections. 

10. As little would it serve the purpose of an objector, 
and as much serve our own, to say that the animal is not 
entirely denied the organs of speech ; for this would only 
increase the incongruity of giving an animal both reason, 
and organs for expressing it, and yet withholding from it 
the medial link, whatever it may be, necessary to connect 
and develop both. That some animals, especially birds, 
have at least imperfect organs of speech is evident, for they 
can be taught to speak ; and the only reason which can be 
assigned why they do not utter a single untaught sentence 
of their own, is that they have not a single thought to ex- 
press. For "in a question respecting the possession of 
reason, the absence of all proof is tantamount to a proof of 
the contrary." 1 

11. But, while the train of our remarks impels us to the 
conclusion that, in the mental process of the animal, reason 
does not intervene between its perceptions and its volitions, 
it forcibly indicates what may or does intervene, namely, 

1 Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, p. 291. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



241 



the operation of appetites, passions, habits, and, not 
recollection, but memory or associations of past impressions. 
To the expression of these alone, its sounds and signs are 
adequate; and of these alone we believe it to be conscious. 
As sensation issues in perception, perception awakens desire 
or attachment, aversion or anger, fear, or the operation of 
habit, or some past impression or mental association; the 
influence of this again determines the volitions necessarily, 
and determines them differently accordingly as they act 
feebly or powerfully, singly or in combination; while the 
volitions, so determined, issue in corresponding muscular 
action. The relation of the Divine agency to animal in- 
stinct, will be a subject for after consideration. 

12. Having thus considered the subject independently, 
we may now be allowed to glance at it in its relation to the 
unfolding of that great system of Divine procedure of 
which it forms a part. We are not aware that the con- 
clusions at which we have arrived have been in the least 
degree biassed by a reference to that system. If, therefore, 
on comparing them with the expectations which that 
system would naturally suggest, we find them harmonize 
with each other, we shall be entitled to regard such harmony 
as additional evidence of the truth of our conclusions. 
And besides this, we shall feel the advantage of being able 
to bring our independent conclusions to the test of an inde- 
pendent system, and of there finding, so to speak, a place 
awaiting these conclusions. For to the want of such a test it 
is, we think, to be chiefly ascribed that so much diversity and 
uncertainty of opinion on the subject, prevails. We will only 
premise farther, that it is not our purpose to do more at 
present than barely to indicate some of those expectations 
to which we refer; leaving the more complete exposition of 
them to their proper places in the coming sections. 

R 



242 



THE PBE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



13. If, for instance, in our hypothetical visit to the 
scene of the advancing creation, we had been forewarned 
that the animal kingdom was only to form a part of the 
creation, but was not to be that part to which the Divine 
manifestation was to be made, ivhat more reasonable than 
to expect that we should find a form of existence naturally 
incapable of recognising the great design? Now this is to 
expect that the animal kingdom will be found irrational ; 
destitute alike of that faculty of concluding universal 
truths from particular appearances, which would have re- 
ferred it back to its origin ; and of that power of proposing 
an ultimate end, and of determining the will by ideas, 
which would have pointed it on to the chief and last end 
of all things. And accordingly, we do not find that it ex- 
hibits the least evidence of reason. 

14. But if this stage of creation is to manifest the 
goodness of the Creator, the animal must not be endowed 
even with the power of recognising its humble position in 
the scale of creation, otherwise its enjoyment might be 
completely marred. Accordingly, it occupies its place as 
a link, unconscious of its office, in the yet ascending but 
unfinished series of being ; and is incapable alike of mentally 
" looking before or after." 

15. But, though unconscious of the ultimate design of 
creation, an end it must and does answer. The tendency 
of all its motions, voluntary and involuntary, is to preserve 
its own life, and to perpetuate its kind. Yet must it not 
be allowed to be conscious that it is answering even this end ; 
otherwise the same mental power, which would enable it to 
recognise this fact, would enable it to recognise other truths, 
and might fill its life with care and anxiety. Accordingly, 
the bird, while patiently sitting on its eggs, week after 
week, is ignorant of the end to be answered. An interme- 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



243 



diate or present end may be answered of which it is con- 
scious; for, during every moment of the time, some sense 
may be receiving present gratification. But the purpose to 
which this present enjoyment is subservient is that great 
favourite object of nature, the continuation of the kind; 
and this end the animal is accomplishing blindly and unin- 
tentionally. 

16. But if the great object of its life is to answer this 
end, and if the circumstances in which, and the external 
means by which, this end is to be gained, vary, we may ex- 
pect that it will not be destitute of adaptive power and in- 
stinctive intelligence. Even the plant, we have seen, pos- 
sesses the former ; it is only analogous, then, that to the nobler 
animal should be superadded the latter. Accordingly, the 
power which the animal possesses of unknowingly profiting 
by experience, is simply the slightly diversified application 
and perseverance of instinct in gaining its own great end. 

17. Farther, if the animal be thus insensible to the ulti- 
mate end of creation, and even of the part which it is made 
to act for the attainment of that end, we may expect that 
its signs of communication will be of a very humble 
description. Having no thoughts to disclose, speech, the 
vehicle of thought, will be unnecessary. Having nothing to 
express but the feeling of the moment, nothing more can 
be necessary than inarticulate signs; and nothing more 
does it possess. The minister and interpreter of nature" 
is yet to come. 

18. In resumption of the law now under consideration, 
then, we remark that a superior order of life is here found 
added to the vegetable or organic life. By the wonderful 
addition of the senses, the points of relation between the 
animal and the external world are multiplied above those 
of the plant a thousand-fold. By the properties of animal 

R 2 



244 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



mind which we have already considered — sensation, percep- 
tion, passion, mental association, and constrained volition, 
comparatively inferior as these may be, those relations are 
further increased. The powers of muscular contraction 
and locomotion, by changing the position of the animal in 
relation to external objects, and by enabling it to put itself 
in proximity or even contact with them, augments these re- 
lations still more. And the faculty of communicating by 
sounds and signs with the creatures of its own kind, 
renders the number of these relations indefinite. While 
each of these innumerable relations is a designed and calcu- 
lated part of an elaborate system of animal enjoyment. 
And thus have we illustrated and substantiated the law of 
progress. 

And, here, it is obvious to remark, how as each part 
of creation comes into existence, and becomes related to 
the preceding parts, certain terms progressively enlarge 
their meaning. There was a time, for example, when 
the word creation, supposing there were beings to employ 
it, meant only, in reference to the material system, chaos; 
and when life meant only vegetable existence. The 
doctrine of Providence, in relation to the same material 
system, originally indicated much less than it has come to 
mean, for there was but little comparatively to provide for. 
And so also of the medial relation, — expressing itself at 
first in effects representative of an originating cause ; then 
adding to these the attainment of ends by the organization 
and employment of prepared means, representative of 
power guided by wisdom ; and then endowing certain organic 
forms with susceptibilities of enjoyment, thus adding to 
power and wisdom, goodness, and awakening the idea 
that, as we are looking on a progressive scheme, the relation 
in question will yet express itself in other and higher forms. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



245 



IY. 

Continuity. — Distinct as is the animal kingdom from 
the vegetable, and numerous and striking as are the addi- 
tional characteristics which, in some of its departments, it 
exhibits, the progression will be found to be, in that general 
sense in which alone it can be expected, continuous^) 

1. It is continuous if regarded organically, or in rela- 
tion to the vegetable kingdom. This is evident from the 
appellation given to a large division of organized bodies, 
zoophytes, or animal plants. So imperceptible are the gra- 
dations by which the two kingdoms are apparently con- 
nected at their origins, that naturalists are often divided 
as to the kingdom to which many well-known bodies belong. 
And a proposition has been entertained by more than one 
scientific society, that certain classes of organized beings 
should be placed in a new kingdom, occupying a place 
between plants and animals. 

Still, it should be distinctly remembered, that this con- 
tinuity is only apparent or general. It may be an insen- 
sible gradation to us. To superior powers, the passage 
from the vegetable to the animal would be visible, and 
could be measured. To suppose that, because it is difficult 
to assign the boundaries of the two kingdoms, therefore 
there are no boundaries, would be as irrational as to con- 
clude that, because material atoms disappear, first from our 
unaided sight, and then vanish even beyond the reach of 
microscopic power, there is a point at which they graduate 
into nothingness. A moment's reflection will show us that, 
between that supposed point and the point beyond, there is 
all the difference between body and space, something and 
nothing — an infinite difference. In the same manner, how- 
ever slight the break, where the vegetable appears to gra- 



246 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



duate into the animal, such an interruption there is ; and 
it is nothing less than an interruption in kind, a transition 
from identity to essential difference. Accordingly, Cuvier 
affirms the universal application of the graduating prin- 
ciple to be philosophically untenable ; and disclaims its 
rigorous application to the objects even of one and the 
same kingdom of nature. 1 And even Lamarck, than whom 
no one, perhaps, entertains more extravagant views of a 
structural gradation in animals, expresses his belief that 
plants and animals, when most resembling, are always dis- 
tinguishable. 2 

2. Progression is also traceable, in the same general 
manner, in what may be called a geological or historical 
continuity. Physiologists regard the animal kingdom as 
susceptible of a fourfold division, in the following ascending 
order, — Zoophytes or Radiata, animals whose parts are 
distributed around a common centre, as the star-fish ; Mol- 
lusca, pulpy animals, inclosed wholly or partially in a mus- 
cular envelope, as the cuttle-fish ; Annulosa or Articulata, 
jointed animals, as the lobster ; and Vertebrata, or animals 
with a spinal column. 3 This last division is composed of 
four classes, in the following order, — Fish, Reptiles, Birds, 
and Mammals, or animals which suckle their young. Now, 
as the fossil remains of all these divisions and classes are 
not found together in the lowest strata of the earth, are 
they found by geologists in any order; and, if so, what is 
that order ? 

The lowest or earliest system of rocks in which any 

1 Regne Animal, Pref., pp. xx. xxi. 

2 Philosoph. Zoolog., torn. i. pp. 377, 384, and 398, in note. See 
Professor Kidd's B. Treatise, pp. 310, 311. 

3 This is the order of arrangement adopted by Geoffrey and others. 
Cuvier's order reversed the position of the second and third divisions. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



247 



traces of organic structure have been discovered are the 
Cambrian. Here are found in abundance the remains, not 
of radiata alone, but of the second division of the animal 
kingdom also, predaceous cephalopods, the most advanced 
of all molluscs in organic structure; and, of the third divi- 
sion, highly organized crustaceans — trilobites, with reticular 
eyes. In the next system of the ascending series, the 
upper Silurian rocks, some of the preceding species are 
found, " but, as a group, the species are new and charac- 
teristic." Here, first, a vertebrate appears — a fish. But 
while the class to which it belongs is the lowest of the four 
vertebral divisions, the specimen itself belongs to the highest 
order of its class — the placoid. Indeed, all the fishes found 
in this system are of a high organic structure. The old 
red sandstone above the Silurian rocks, contains numerous 
genera of placoids, and of the order next below — ganoids. 
Above the old red sandstone comes the carboniferous system ; 
and above this, the zechstein or magnesian limestone for- 
mation. Here reptiles appear for the first time — Pakeo- 
saurs, thecodonts, and monitors. But while reptiles com- 
pose the class of vertebrata next in order above fishes, the 
fossil bones of these three first-found species show them to 
have belonged to the order of lacertilians — the third from 
the top of Owen's nine orders of fossil reptiles. Ascending 
to the secondary class of rocks, we reach first the new red 
sandstone and saliferous marls. Here the gigantic frog or 
toad-like labyrinthodons occur ; and here, for the first time, 
are the traces of birds. Still, as far as their structure can 
be ascertained, they do not appear to have been of the 
lowest order. Next comes the oolitic or jurassic system ; 
and here occurs the didelphys — the first known example of 
mammalian remains, though not so low in organic structure 
as some living mammals. The green sand and cretaceous 



248 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



systems follow. The latter exhibits great changes of or- 
ganic types ; for while some of the preceding families have 
become degenerate, and others extinct, new families are 
called into being; and here we have the first traces of 
animal species still living. Leaving the cretaceous, we 
enter the tertiary system ; and here we find ourselves in a 
comparatively new world of organic remains. " Among 
the millions of organic forms, from corals up to mammals, 
of the London and Paris basins," Ave find hardly one species 
belonging to the secondary rocks. Here, in the first sub- 
division of the system — the eocene — we find numerous ex- 
tinct species of vertebral animals — fishes, reptiles, birds, 
and mammals; but the first and the last coexist. And, of 
the mammals, the carnivora are as old as the pachyderms; 
nor are monkeys wanting even in this opening page of the 
new chapter. And, then, as eocene implies that the sub- 
division exhibits the dawn of species still existing, the 
miocene subdivision above contains more of the species now 
living, though extinct species still predominate; while in 
the pliocene, or upper division, extinct species decline, and 
species now living predominate. 1 

From these remarks, it will be seen that geology affords 
no ground whatever for the hypothesis of a regular succes- 
sion of creatures, beginning with the simplest forms in the 
older strata, and ascending to the more complicated in the 
later formations. The earliest forms of life known to 
geology are not of the lowest grade of organization ; neither 
are the earliest forms of any of the classes which appear 
subsequently the simplest of their kind. The fanciful 
hypothesis which derives the higher animal from the lower — 

1 See Professor Sedgwick's Address to the Geol. Society, p. 2 ; and 
an admirable article in the Edin. Rev., July, 1845. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



249 



and of which we shall speak hereafter — is here contradicted 
at every step. 

Neither have we any reason to believe that, of the species 
found in the older fossiliferous rocks, the individuals be- 
longing to each existed in smaller numbers than they did 
afterwards. Animal forms, too, appear there in as full 
development, as to size, as they do in the analogous forms 
of existing creatures. 

But the continuity which we do find is truly remarkable. 
As to the uninterrupted,- maintenance of life; from the 
time of its first creation, there does not appear to have been 
any break in the vast chain, till we reach the existing 
order of things : "no one geological period, long or short, 
no one series of stratified rocks, is everywhere devoid of 
traces of life." 1 As to the increase of species ; " although 
the older fossiliferous strata often contain vast quantities of 
organic remains, the number of species is much smaller 
than in more recent deposits." 2 Chiefly, as to the succes- 
sion of the vertebral classes ; notwithstanding the subor- 
dinate exceptions to regular progress we have noticed, the 
geological order in which we find them is that of an ascend- 
ing series — fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals. And, as 
to the gradual conformity of the successive animal crea- 
tions to the existing types; u we find successive stages 
marked by varying forms of animal and vegetable life, and 
these generally differ more and more widely from existing 
species, as we go further downwards into the receptacles of 
the wreck of more ancient creations." 3 

1 Note by Mr. Phillips, in Professor Powell's Connexion of Natural 
and Divine Truth, p. 309. 

2 Mr. Murchison's Silurian System, p. 583. 

3 Dr. Buckland's B. Treatise, vol. i. p. 113. 



250 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



3. The animal kingdom exhibits physiological continuity . 
Here, again, we employ the term continuity, only in a 
general sense, and as opposed to any essential departure 
from the original plans of animal function or structure. 
From the lowest radiate, up to the most complicated and 
perfect animal structure, endowed with digestive, intestinal, 
circulatory, respiratory, and nervous functions, a gradation 
may be traced of an easy, and, in some parts, almost im- 
perceptible ascent. The types which represent the great 
divisions of the animal kingdom, exhibit points of resem- 
blance; showing that they are all parts of one general 
plan. In the progress of discovery, species are often occur- 
ring which seem to fill places in the general classification 
which were previously vacant. Thus the numerous pachy- 
dermata found by Cuvier among the earliest fossil mam- 
malia, enabled him to supply many intermediate forms 
which do not occur in the species of that order now living; 
the cetacea seem to occupy the interval between fishes and 
warm-blooded quadrupeds; and the ornithorhynchus be- 
tween birds and mammalia. 

It is not to be inferred from this representation, however, 
that the gradation of animal being is absolutely continuous 
and complete. Man, probably, will never succeed in re- 
covering fossil specimens of all the forms of past creations. 
But even if he did, and if to these were added any given 
number of new species, the existing plan of animal life 
would find room for them all. They would form a con- 
tinuation of the present system; not one of them would 
stand isolated. Thus interpreted, we have no objection to 
the doctrine of " the unity of organic composition." It 
was by a masterly application of it, in this sense, that 
Cuvier was able to supply from the fossil genera of former 
states of the earth, many of the links that appeared to be 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



251 



wanting, in order to connect the past and present forms of 
animal life as parts of one great system. 

4. In our examination of nature, then, we have found, 
not only progression, but continuity — the only kind of con- 
tinuity which we were led to expect — that which discloses 
the Divine manifestation in the order of power, wisdom, 
and goodness ; and we have found this graduated connexion 
existing, not merely between the several stages of the 
advancing creation, but also, in various respects, between 
the multiplied parts of each stage separately considered. 

V. 

Activity. — Another of our laws is, that the animal struc- 
ture and functions are developed by regulated activity. 

1. " All parts of the animal body," says Liebig, " are 
produced from the fluid circulating in its organism. A 
destruction of the animal body is constantly proceeding. 
Every motion, every manifestation of force, is the result of 
the transformation of the structure or of its substance. . . . 
At every moment, with every expiration, parts of the 
body are removed, and are emitted into the atmosphere." 
Every part of the frame of a vertebral animal, for instance, 
circulates more or less rapidly. Its food circulates quickly 
in the fluids, more slowly in the flesh, more slowly still in 
the bones ; but its life requires that every part should be 
in motion. 

2. Besides which, as animals rise in the scale of exist- 
ence, the systems of digestion, circulation, respiration, and 
sensation, bear a proportional increase; which is only say- 
ing that organic activity and animal perfection correspond 
with each other. 

3. Again, an organ being given, its development or 
degree of perfection is regarded as depending on the extent 



252 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



and number of the uses to which it is applied. Thus the 
teeth, the special use of which is to triturate the food, to 
which alone by some classes of animals they are applied ; 
are by the graminiverous class applied to the further office 
of pretension ; and in the carnivorous they become, in ad- 
dition, organs of attack. 

4. Hence too, all those defective formations, formerly 
deemed mis-shapen or monstrous productions, or lusus 
naturce, are now found to be occasioned, as in abnormal 
jilants, by the irregular development — the activity in defect 
or excess — of some parts of the embryo, while the natural 
process was carried on regularly in the rest of the system. 

5. And, in harmony with the locomotive power, and 
organization of the animal, the external world is adapted to 
call forth its activity. The senses, and the objects which 
excite them ; the appetite, and the food which gratifies it ; 
the passions, and the means of appeasing them, mutually 
operate to excite the activity of the animal. And on the 
constant exercise of its functions, in conformity with their 
nature, its well-being and enjoyment depend. 

6. Every stage and part then of the progressive and all- 
connected scheme of creation is found to manifest all that 
it is calculated to exhibit of the Divine nature, by develop- 
ing or working out its own. Every being, every organ, 
element, and particle, is in constant activity. Much of this 
activity, indeed, is so subtle and rapid, as to defy our means 
of measurement and calculation; yet has every atom an 
appointed place, and obeys a definite law. And much of 
this activity may appear to be objectless ; yet is everything 
acting its appropriate part, and answering a momentous 
end; for, here, everything is ever tending to realize the 
great end. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



253 



VI. 

Development.- — According to another law, the same pro- 
perties and characteristics which existed in the preceding 
stage are found to be, not only brought on to the present, 
but to be in a more advanced condition; in the sense of 
being expressed in higher forms, or applied to higher pur- 
poses. 

1. We saw that while the plant, in obedience to the law 
of gravity, tends downwards, it rises upwards too. But the 
animal is able to resist this law so far as to maintain a 
variety of motions and attitudes at variance with its ten- 
dency; or even to rise, like the eagle, many thousand feet 
into the air, in opposition to its own natural weight. Many 
plants will bear a very limited variety of temperature ; but 
many animals preserve an elevated and steady temperature, 
whether exposed to severe cold or to excessive heat ; some 
will even bear exposure to the intensest cold of the Polar 
regions, without having their own temperature reduced 
even by a single degree. The plant receives its nourishment 
by a slow and nearly constant supply, and by being rooted 
in one spot : the animal is furnished with a receptacle into 
which it can receive at once a large supply of food; by 
which it is rendered independent of local situation; and 
enjoys the privilege of moving from place to place, and of 
selecting its food. The animal has all its organs of nutri- 
tion within itself ; for, while the plant absorbs from the soil 
without, it is not until the food is deposited in the stomach 
of the animal, that the lacteals, or absorbing vessels, 
answering in their office to the roots of vegetables, imbibe 
nourishment. The sexual distinction of dioecious plants is, 
at most, little more than an obscure intimation of the same 
distinction developed in the animal kingdom ; where it is 



254 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



made the basis of the strongest sympathies, relations, and 
affections. The parent plant is constructed to provide the 
seed with that nutriment on which, when it falls to the 
earth, it may live during its germination, before the roots 
have sufficiently enlarged to absorb the moisture from the 
surrounding soil ; but from the moment in which it is shed, 
its separation from the plant is complete. While, in the 
animal kingdom, the moment of birth is, in the case of some 
tribes, the commencement of a series of parental cares; 
some species continuing to protect their young; others, 
both male and female, uniting to protect and to feed them ; 
while the mammal protects and feeds them with food drawn 
from its own life, and even continues to associate with them 
and to be mutually dependent, to the close of life. 

The excitability of the plant is, as we have seen, suc- 
ceeded in the animal by sensibility and contractility — that 
passive and that active element of animal life by which it 
is distinguished, not only from mechanical, chemical, and 
all other merely physical forces, but even from organic vital 
powers. For, in addition to the nerves of sensibility for 
conveying sensations to the sensorium, there are also nerves 
of motion for conveying the mandates of volition to the 
muscles. 

2. These illustrations may remind the reader of the 
following admired passage in Coleridge's " Aids to Eeflec- 
tion i" 1 " Every rank of creatures, as it ascends in the scale 
of creation, leaves death behind it or under it. The Metal 
at its height of being seems a mute prophecy of the coming 
vegetation, into a mimic semblance of which it crystalizes. 
The Blossom and Flower, the acme of vegetable life, divides 
into correspondent organs with reciprocal functions, and by 
instinctive motions and approximations seems impatient of 
that fixture by which it is differenced in kind from the 
1 Pp. Ill, 112, 1st ed. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



255 



flower-shaped Psyche, that flutters with free wing above it. 
And wonderfully in the insect realm doth the irritability, 
the proper seat of instinct, while yet the nascent sensibility 
is subordinated thereto — most wonderfully, I say, doth the 
muscular life in the insect, and the musculo -arterial in the 
bird, imitate, and typically rehearse the adaptive under- 
standing, yea, and the moral affections and charities of 
man. Let us carry ourselves back, in spirit, to the myste- 
rious week, the teeming work-days of the Creator : as they 
rose in vision before the eye of the inspired historian of ' the 
generations of the heaven and the earth, in the days that 
the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.' And who 
that hath watched their ways with an understanding heart, 
could contemplate the filial and loyal bee ; the home-build- 
ing, wedded, and divorceless swallow; and above all, the 
manifoldly intelligent 1 ant tribes, with their commonwealths 
and confederacies, their warriors and miners, the husband- 
folk that fold in their tiny flocks on the honeyed leaf, and 
the virgin sisters with the holy instincts of maternal love, 
detached, and in selfless purity, and not say to himself, 
Behold the shadow of approaching humanity, the sun rising 
from behind, in the kindling morn of creation ! Thus all 
lower natures find their highest good in semblances and seek- 
ings of that which is higher and better." This is the poetic 
but guarded language of a mind which more than "half- 
creates that which it sees." No one could be more fully 
aware than its author that, in thus subjectiving nature, 
and allowing his active but trained imagination to speak, 
he was only illustrating a moral truth ; or be less in danger 
of mistaking rhetoric for science. 

The gradation of a plant into an animal, or of an inferior 
animal into one of a higher class, by any process of natural 
and necessary development, is a hypothesis requiring far 

1 See Huber on Bees and on Ants. 



256 



THE PKE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



other data. In preceding chapters it has been shown that 
development, in such a sense, is entirely unknown to fossil 
geology ; and in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of this 
part it is made apparent that the hypothesis is at variance 
with the facts, both of geology and of animal physiology. 

3. The facts which we have adduced, however, are suffi- 
cient to illustrate the law of development in the limited, 
but important sense in which alone we hold it to be true. 
We have seen that pre-existing laws are not merely brought 
on into each succeeding department of creation, but are 
there expressed in higher forms, or promoted to higher 
offices. The scheme of the Divine Creator advances and 
ascends. His last and greatest display virtually includes, 
and provisionally completes, the exhibition of all that had 
preceded it. His wisdom is the perfection of His power; 
His goodness, the provisional complement of both. 

VII. 

Relations. — Every part is mutually and medially re- 
lated to the whole. 

1. Numerous and complicated relations exist between 
the earth and every animal which inhabits it. The mag- 
nitude of the earth determines the strength of its bones, 
and the power of its muscles. The depth of the atmosphere 
determines the condition of its fluids, and the resistance of 
its blood-vessels. The common act of breathing, the trans- 
piration from the surface, must bear relation to the weight, 
moisture, and temperature of the medium which surrounds 
it. The external form of every part of its body, and every 
organ of sense, relates to the properties of the objects 
around it. All its parts are created in accordance with the 
condition of the globe, and are systematic portions of a 
great whole. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



257 



2. From this it may be expected, not only that an 
adaptation will be found between the animal and the par- 
ticular element of air, earth, or water, which it inhabits, 
but between it and the different states of the earth at 
different geological periods. Accordingly, the fossil remains 
of animals inform us, not only that certain races of animals, 
now extinct, existed at certain remote periods; they even 
reveal the prevailing condition of the earth during those 
periods, and the nature of the changes which it successively 
passed through. 

3. May we not expect, then, if the relation be so close, 
that similar adaptations will be found existing between the 
animal and the region which it inhabits ? They exist in 
abundance. It is this fact which explains to us, for ex- 
ample, the periodical changes in the plumage of birds, and 
the furs of quadrupeds, the migrations of animals, and the 
theory of their geographical distribution. 

4. Nice adjustments are observable in order to preserve 
the balance between the different races of animals existing 
at any one time on the earth. The produce of so minute a 
thing as a fly, if unchecked, would soon darken the air and 
render whole regions desolate. Had there been an error 
as to the grouping of the different races of any one period, 
there might have been a destruction of the whole. But, so 
nicely have all the varieties been balanced, that they have 
mutually conduced to the existence of the whole. Even 
the conflicting instincts of animals — as, of one to pursue 
and another to flee — are related parts of this whole. 

5. A single living animal is the result of a system of 
relations. It is this fact which enables the comparative 
anatomist to infer from a single fossil bone, the division, 
class, order, and even species and habits of the being to 
which it belonged. Ex ungue leoncm. To say that there 

s 



258 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



is a perfect relation established between the bones and the 
muscles, or that everything remarkable in the outward 
configuration of an animal is always attended with some 
corresponding change in the anatomy, would give but an 
imperfect view of its organic relations. " With each new 
(animal) instrument, visible externally, there are a thousand 
internal relations established; the introduction of a new 
mechanical contrivance in the bones or joints, infers an 
alteration in every part of the skeleton; a corresponding 
arrangement of all the muscles ; that the nervous filaments, 
laid intermediate between the instrument and the centre of 
life and motion, have an appropriate texture and distribu- 
tion ; and, finally .... that new sources of activity must 
be created, in relation to the new organ, otherwise the part 
will hang a useless appendage." 1 So perfect is this system 
of relations, that whatever part or function of the animal 
engages our attention, we feel inclined to conclude that the 
whole has been adjusted for that particular point. Though 
a thousand parts consent and conform to every single act, 
the nervous system, besides being the medium of sympathy 
among the organs, secures a consentaneousness of action 
among the parts, and establishes a unity of consciousness 
in the individual being. 

6. But more remarkable than all, perhaps, and the type 
of mysteries beyond itself, is that sexual relation, by which 
one entire being becomes the complement of another, and 
sustains a medial relation to all the generations of the same 
kind, from the first of the race to the last that shall exist. 

7. Thus we have seen that the whole universe, organic 
and inorganic, presents a system of instrumental relations. 
The last effect, of any particular kind, which the pre- 
adamite creation exhibited, was variously connected with 

1 Sir C. Bell's B. Treatise, p. 180. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



259 



the first of the entire series. The bare coming into existence 
of that first effect proclaimed a Cause ; and the bare continu- 
ance of that effect, for a single moment, proclaimed a distant 
end ; why else did it continue in existence even for that 
moment? Its continuance not only foretold an end, but 
announced that by means of all the intermediate effects 
which should instrumentally flow from it, it would be re- 
presentatively present in that end, however distant — thus 
connecting the origin with the end of all things. 

In a similar manner, each of the several kinds of effects 
in nature is found to be related to all the rest. The object 
of the Creator is ultimately one ; and they all stand in the 
relation of means to that one end. Vast as is the space 
they may have occupied from the beginning, and ever 
widening as it may have been through each successive 
moment since, the Divine plan circumscribes the whole. 
Nothing wanders at large and unrelated in all that immea- 
surable circumference. And nothing, once related, can 
ever break away, and reach a point beyond. Every atom 
is bound to the system as effectually as if it formed the 
centre of the whole. And the last and most finished speci- 
men of sentient life that has come from the Creating hand, 
is variously related to that apparently insignificant atom. 
On no one point can we lay our finger and positively affirm, 
" Here ends one class of effects and begins another :" — 
this is the province of the Creator alone. The very par- 
titions of nature are denoted by disjunctive conjunctions. 
Eange where we will, we never find that we have passed 
into another sphere — a strange department of creation. 
There is, says Paley, " a certain character, or style, (if I 
may use the expression,) in the operations of Divine 
Wisdom; something which everywhere announces, amidst 
an infinite variety of detail, an inimitable unity and har- 

s 2 



260 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



mony of design." How obvious the inference, then, that 
no one science can be properly arranged, which does not 
provide for its relation to every other science. Philosophy, 
says Adam Smith, is the science of the connecting prin- 
ciples of nature. 

VIII. 

Order. — We may expect that laws will come into ope- 
ration on every subject of them, according to their order in 
the system of creation. Were our knowledge of the phy- 
siology of the subject sufficiently accurate and minute, we 
doubt not that this principle would be found to hold good in 
every respect in which it could be legitimately applied; 
whether tested from the first moment of embryonic life to 
the birth of the animal, or from the first moment of inde- 
pendent existence at birth to complete maturity. At pre- 
sent, however, physiologists differ respecting many of the phe- 
nomena concerned, so that we could not rely on them either 
for argument or illustration. Thus, the view, that animals 
occupying the highest place in the scheme of organization 
present, at the commencement of their embryonic existence, 
a marked resemblance to that which is the permanent con- 
dition of the lowest animals of the same division ; and that 
in the course of their progress to their own mature and dis- 
tinctive form, they assume in succession the characters of 
each class of the division to which they belong, correspond- 
ing to their consecutive order in the ascending scale, would 
seem to promise a strong corroboration of our principle. 
Nor would the serviceableness of this view be much dimi- 
nished, even if accompanied by the important admission, 
that at no period of embryonic development does an animal 
of a higher class resemble in all its 'parts an animal of a 
lower class ; for, at the same moment that one of its organs 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



261 



resembles the corresponding organ in a lower animal, another 
will be found to resemble a corresponding organ in a much 
higher animal. But we cannot accept a view which rests, as 
we shall presently show this does, on very insufficient and 
doubtful data. 

It is sufficient to find, however, that, generally, and as far 
as physiologists are agreed, our principle proves to be in 
harmony with fact. Does it imply, for example, that the de- 
velopment of the organic life would precede that of the animal 
life ? The pulsations of the heart, the centre of the organic 
life, give the first indications of vitality in the embryo, 
while the sensorial functions are the last which attain per- 
fection. Would it lead us to expect that the nutritive organs 
would be found to precede the reproductive? " The appa- 
ratus first perfected is that which is immediately necessary 
for the exercise of the vital functions, and which is there- 
fore required for the completion of all the other structures." 1 
Even the prior appearance of the spinal cord, 2 is no impeach- 
ment of our principle; for as it presents itself before the 
embryo has any life, or organs of life of its own, it can only 
be regarded as an extension of the parental life; 3 and to 
that life our principle does apply. 

1 Roget's B. Treatise, vol. ii. p. 540. 

2 According to Miiller, the first trace of the nervous system is not 
merely that of the spinal cord or of the ganglionic string, but is the 
potential whole of that system, of the brain and all its appendages. — 
Physiology, vol. i. p. 20. 

3 Up to this point, the embryo cannot be spoken of as a separate 
existence. Even those organs which ultimately become single are 
said to be formed in halves; or to present, at first, a double appear- 
ance. They are dividual; they do not yet form an individual. It is 
not until the halves approach, infold, and unite, that an intimation is 
given of a distinct system. At first, too, the formation is said to pro- 
ceed from without inwards, showing the external dependence of the ^ 
process; it is not until the order is reversed that an intimation is 
given of the approaching self-dependence of the animal. 



262 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



And would it further lead us to expect tlftit the nutritive 
process would correspond with the order of the same process 
in plants? From the mechanical operations to which the 
food is, in the first place, subjected, and the chemical 
changes which it next undergoes in the stomach, through 
all the intermediate stages, to that of absorption, the order 
of the process is the same in each economy. 

IX. 

Influence. — It may be expected that everything will 
bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserv- 
ing the end, a reason why all other things should be in- 
fluenced by it; and for the degree in which it, in its turn, 
should be influenced by every tiling else. 

1. In our preceding illustration of this law, we saw the 
living plant decomposing the carbonic acid of the atmo- 
sphere, appropriating the carbon to the formation of its own 
juices, and returning the disengaged oxygen into the atmo- 
sphere ; itself, meanwhile, influenced by the amount of the 
element present and subject to decomposition. We have 
now to remark that by this very process, the plant was not 
only rendering the atmospheric air more fitted than it was 
before for the support of animal life, and thus preparing for 
the support of a higher order of life while absorbing its own 
means of nourishment, but that it was preparing to become 
the food of that superior order of life. 

2. Looking up the scale of creation, the highest order of 
being at any time existing is to be regarded as the relative 
end of all the orders below it. 1 This is its prerogative by 
right of its comparative importance, or of that greater power 

1 Liebig shows the closeness of the connexion between vegetable 
and animal life, from the fact that " the first substance capable of 
affording nutriment to animals is the last product of the creative 
energy of vegetables." 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



263 



which it possesses of answering the great end of creation. 
But as all inferior beings possess a measure of the same 
power, and therefore, of the same right, their subordination 
to the higher is never absolute. It is regulated by the de- 
gree in which they can conduce to the well-being of that 
higher order of existence. This is at once the extent and 
the limit of their subordination. Hence, one of the nobler 
species no sooner dies, than he loses his status in creation. 
The lowest forms of animal life become his superiors, and 
prey on him. And even the physical laws regain their 
ascendancy over him. So that in this sense, " a living dog 
is better than a dead lion." 

3. The law now under consideration is recognised in all 
our natural classifications of objects. For it provides not 
only for the calculation of all the points of resemblance, for 
the subordination of characters, and for the arrangement of 
animals in natural groups, but also for the arrangement of 
these groups in an ascending series according to the degree 
of value or intensity in the leading phenomena of the animal 
economy. Indeed, the principle is recognised in that system 
of Providence which, while it " feeds the young lions," notes 
" the fallen sparrow," and " taketh care for oxen," is repre- 
sented as apportioning its regard according as its objects are 
of lesser or of " greater value;" according, that is, to the 
measure of the capacity which an object has to receive and 
exhibit the proofs of the Divine care, and so to answer the 
end of creation. 

X. 

Subordination. — Every law subordinate in rank, 
though it may have been prior in its origin, may be ex- 
pected to be subject to each higher law of the manifestation. 

1 . Accordingly, we here find the productions of Wisdom 



264 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 

subordinate to the exercise of goodness ; the vegetable sus- 
taining the animal creation. 

2. But this subordination is continuous; extending into 
the animal kingdom itself. Each class of animated being 
is, generally speaking, food for those immediately above it 
in the scale of existence. 

3. The same principle of subordination obtains among 
animals of the same species. For instance, if, as we have 
already seen, the perpetuation of the species be a later and 
a higher law than the preservation and enjoyment of the 
individual, we may anticipate that the earlier but inferior 
law will submit to it. Accordingly, numerous tribes, 
especially of insects, appear to live only to propagate their 
kind. And, among the mammalia, the parental instincts, 
while they last, subordinate every other. The " bear be- 
reaved of her whelps" is reckless of her own life. 

4. Nor is the law of subordination less traceable in the 
organization and functions of the individual animal. In- 
deed, here it asserts itself in a new and remarkable manner. 
For, as we have seen, while the primary object of vegetable 
germs appears to be the preparation of the functions of 
nutrition, the primitive trace of the animal structure in its 
embryonic state, is that of a part to which all the functions 
of vitality are to be placed in subordination ; namely, the 
rudiments of the central organ of nervous power. The 
same early intimation of the ultimate supremacy of the 
organ of sight is given by the appearance of a rudimental 
eye, before any of the other organs of sense. — I say, the 
supremacy of the eye ; for, if the value of the senses is to 
be estimated according to the degree in which they enlarge 
the circle of our objective perceptions, the order in which 
they would rank would, probably, be this — touch, taste, 
smell, hearing, sight. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



265 



5. But though intimation is thus early given of the 
nervous system, and of the higher senses, the order in 
which they come into active use is in strict accordance 
with our preceding law. For, the parts first perfected are 
those which are immediately necessary for the exercise of 
the vital functions. The heart, the punctum saliens of 
organic life, begins its pulsations while yet it resembles a 
mere tube ; the sensorial system is perfected last. And, to 
the last and highest power of the animal — the power of 
volition — all the earlier functions of vitality are placed in 
subordination. To this, its organs of locomotion are sub- 
servient. And, when they are wearied, for this it reposes 
and sleeps, while the heart keeps vigil, and all the organic 
system continues at work ; that, when it awakes, it may be 
able again to obey its volitions, gratify its desires, and re- 
sume its enjoyments. 

XL 

Uniformity. — This stage of creation is found to be per- 
vaded by the operation, and impressed with the regularity, 
of general laws. All these are doubtless contained in the 
Divine mind ; for they are only the rules of that agency by 
which all animated nature is sustained in activity. 

1. The uniformity of such activity, or the presence of 
such laws, is implied in most of the views already advanced. 
How else, for example, could we speak of the animal 
scheme? What would prevent one class of beings from 
assuming the form of another, till the animal kingdom pre- 
sented a scene of inexplicable confusion, if each of them 
were not kept within the limits assigned to it? Especially 
is this reign of law discernible in the arrangements of 
animal sensation. The function of each nerve of sense is 
determinate, and can be performed by no other part of the 



266 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



system. The optic nerve alone can give rise to the sensa- 
tion of light; "no part of the nervous system but the 
auditory nerve can convey that of sound; and so of the 
rest." While it is evident that the relations subsisting be- 
tween the nervous system and the external agents capable 
of affecting it, must be maintained by laws equally deter- 
minate. 

( 2. Fossil geology shows that such relations have existed 
from the first appearance of animal life to the present day; 
binding the whole together as the successive parts of one 
great system. Paley has well remarked, respecting the 
variations observable in living species of plants and animals, 
in different regions and under various climates, that " we 
never get amongst such original or totally different modes 
of existence, as to indicate that we are come into the pro- 
vince of a different Creator, or under the direction of a 
different Will." 1 The philosophy of Dugald Stewart carries 
him a step further, when he acutely remarks, that the 
uniformity of animal instinct " presupposes a corresponding 
regularity in the physical laws of the universe, insomuch 
that, if the established order of the material world were to 
be essentially disturbed, (the instincts of the brutes remain- 
ing the same,) all their various tribes would inevitably 
perish." 2 Geology immeasurably enlarges the range of this 
truth. " Any naturalist," sagaciously observes Mr. Lyell, 
" will be convinced, on slight reflection, of the justice of 
this remark. He will also admit that the same species 
have always retained the same instincts, and therefore that 
all the strata wherein any of their remains occur, must 
have been formed when the phenomena of inanimate matter 
were the same as they are in the actual condition of the 

1 Nat. Theol., p. 450. Chap, on the Unity of the Deity. 

2 Phil, of the Human Mind, vol. ii. p. 230. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



267 



earth. The same conclusion must also be extended to the 
extinct animals with which the remains of these living 
species are associated ; and by these means we are enabled 
to establish the permanence of the existing physical laws 
throughout the whole period when the tertiary deposits 
were formed." 1 

3. But while the uniformity contended for is essential, 
in order even that any reasoning respecting the past may 
be possible, it should be borne in mind that the same source 
which supplies the means of proving it, furnishes also abun- 
dant evidence of its interruption. Because no other physical 
laws than those which are now known to us have ever ex- 
isted, it by no means follows that these have, in no sense, 
known interruption. Every destructive earthquake, though 
itself the result of general laws, is, in so far as it is de- 
structive, a breach of that stability of nature for which the 
animal is made, and shows that such uniformity is not in- 
violable. While the successive appearance of races of 
animals, entirely unknown to pre-existing nature, shows 
that it is an uniformity as compatible with the addition of 
new creations as with the destruction of old ones. 

XII. 

Obligation. — Animal life exists under an obligation to 
promote the end of creation, commensurate with its means 
and relations. Here, again, obligation can be affirmed of 
the animal kingdom only in the same figurative sense in 
which all the kingdoms of nature are said to be governed 
by laws. The mind of the Lawgiver is the only conceiv- 
able seat of these laws; for they only and simply express 
His modes of operation. If, moreover, these created ex- 
istences have been originated for a purpose, the mind of 

1 Geology, p. 161. 1st Ed. 



268 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



the Creator is the only conceivable seat of that purpose; 
for animal natures are only, at most, instinctive and im- 
pulsive. The mere proximate ends, indeed, for which they 
blindly live — their own conservation and the propagation 
of their kind — may be regarded by the imagination as a 
foreshadowing of a being capable of consciously aiming at a 
higher end. But of such an end the animal itself knows 
nothing. Whatever obligation may exist, therefore, to 
employ the means necessary for the attainment of the end, 
and to create and sustain the animal kingdom as a part of 
those means, can be binding only on Him with whom the 
purpose of their creation has originated. 

The idea of this law is thus recognised and poetically ex- 
pressed by Hooker: "The world's first creation, and the 
preservation since of things created, what is it but only so 
far forth a manifestation by execution, what the eternal law 
of God is concerning; things natural? And as it cometh to 
pass in a kingdom rightly ordered, after a law is once 
published, it presently takes effect far and wide, all states 
framing themselves thereunto ; even so let us think it fareth 
in the natural course of the world : since the time that God 
did first proclaim the edicts of His law upon it, heaven and 
earth have hearkened unto His voice, and their labour hath 
been to do His will. He 1 made a law for the rain.' (Job, 
xxvii. 26.) He gave his ' decree unto the sea that the 
waters should not pass his commandment' (Jer. v. 22). 
Now, if Nature should intermit her course, and leave alto- 
gether, though it were but for a while, the observation of 
her own laws ; if those principal and mother-elements of the 
world whereof all things in this lower world are made, 
should "lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame 
of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen 
and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



269 



wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves 
any way as it might happen ; if the prince of the lights of 
heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied 
course, should as it were, through a languishing faintness, 
begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should 
wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the 
year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, 
the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no 
rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits 
of the earth pine away as children at the withered breasts 
of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief ; — what 
would become of man himself? whom these things now do 
all serve? See we not plainly that obedience of creatures 
unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world ! m 

XIII. 

Well-being. — In accordance with another of our princi- 
ples — that everything will be entitled to an amount of 
.good, or enjoy a degree of loell-being proportionate to the 
discharge of its obligations, or to the measure of its con- 
formity to the laws of its being ; we find that the well-being 
of the animal depends on its conformity to the laws of 
its own constitution. 

1. The laws of its own being, physical, organic, and 
mental, are in conformity with each other, and with the 
laws of the external world ; and provided nothing occurs to 
disturb that harmony, its well-being is secure. If the germ 
from which it springs be perfect, and if its embryonic 
development be unimpeded, it will come into existence as a 
complete organization, sound in its whole constitution ; but, 
if either of these conditions be wanting, it will be feeble and 
sickly, or else a malformation. If, from the first moment of 

1 Works of Hooker, by Keble, vol. i. p. 257. 



270 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



its separate existence, it is supplied properly, as to quan- 
tity and quality, with food, air, light, and every physical 
element requisite for its support, the result will be a healthy 
development of its organs and powers, a pleasing conscious- 
ness of existence, and an aptitude for the performance of its 
natural functions; but the result of non-compliance with 
these conditions, will be a stunted growth, imperfection, or 
an early death. If it duly exercises its organs according to 
the laws of its constitution, enjoyment will be experienced 
in the very act of exercise, and appropriate gratifications 
be acquired ; but the absence of such activity will result in 
the sluggishness and consequent derangement of the func- 
tions, together with the want of the appropriate gratifica- 
tions, and with a sense of uneasiness or of positive pain. 
" The whole life of animals," says Liebig, " consists of a 
conflict between chemical forces and the vital powers. In 
the normal state of the body of an adult, both stand in 
equilibrium. Every mechanical or chemical agency which 
disturbs the restoration of this equilibrium is a cause of dis- 
ease. Disease occurs when the resistance offered by the 
vital force is weaker than the acting cause of disturbance. 
Death is that condition in which chemical or mechanical 
powers gain the ascendancy, and all resistance on the part 
of the vital force ceases." 

2. But this animal well-being does not depend, in a mere 
general and indefinite manner, on conformity with the laws 
of its constitution, but is exactly regulated in its kind and 
degree by the nature and relative importance of the laws 
obeyed. Some laws were intended to be subservient to 
others. If they are so subordinated, they both yield 
their own peculiar kind and degree of pleasure, and instru- 
mentally enable the higher laws to minister their superior 
enjoyment. If the law of appetite be limited to its appro- 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 271 

priate gratification, the pleasure of eating is enjoyed; and, 
besides this, the animal is prepared for all the higher 
pleasures arising from muscular activity and the exercise of 
the senses. But if they are not so subordinated, though the 
higher enjoyment is lost, they do not, therefore, necessarily 
and at once, cease to be productive of their own peculiar 
kind of pleasure. By feeding inordinately, the animal may 
render itself incapable of higher gratifications, of even 
avoiding the attacks to which it is exposed; and may thus 
hasten the end of its life, and therefore, of this solitary 
pleasure of eating ; still, while its appetite continues, it con- 
tinues to enjoy the animal gratification which arises from 
eating. 

3. Here, again, we are reminded of the ideal perfection 
to which we have referred in the corresponding sections of 
the preceding parts. The chances, so to speak, that no two 
animals of the same species have ever stood in precisely the 
same relations to the standard of absolute animal perfection, 
are here multiplied by all the additional laws, and all their 
possible combinations, which characterise the animal as com- 
pared with the vegetable economy. For the same reason, 
the chances are equally increased that no one animal has 
ever reached that standard. In the case of even that one 
which may have most nearly approached it, if certain inci- 
dents had been added to the myriads which had actually 
combined in its history, it would have approached still 
nearer to perfection. Its resemblance to the ideal standard is 
in exact proportion to its conformity to the laws of its being. 

4. And thus we have found that everything in the vege- 
table and animal world has an end of its own; and that all 
such proximate ends are so placed in a line with the ulti- 
mate end, that everything answers it most effectually, by 
aiming at its own immediate end. The happiness of the 



272 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



creature and the glory of the Creator are thus seen to har- 
monize and become one. 

XIV. 

Analogy. — The relation of every part of the animal 
kingdom to every other part, as well as to all that had 
been created previously, suggests another of our laws, that 
the whole is in analogy, or is arranged on a plan. 

1. Accordingly, it is found that, notwithstanding the 
almost interminable variety of animal forms with which the 
earth, the air, and the waters, teem, the whole are reducible 
to a very small number of types, or principal schemes of 
organization. Cuvier, as we have seen, limited these 
models to four — the radiata, the mollusca, the articulata, 
and the vertebrata. Take any of these divisions — say the 
vertebral — and it would almost seem as if, in its construc- 
tion, a definite type or standard had been kept in view ; 
and to which, amidst endless modifications, all the species 
had been conformed. For, in many instances, where the 
greatest diversity might have been expected, this original 
type is departed from only just so much as is necessary 
for the purpose of adapting it to the destiny of the par- 
ticular species ; while, in other instances, where the greatest 
dissimilarity of size, and form, and habit, exists, the closest 
analogy to the type is still traceable. Thus, the longest 
necked quadruped at present known, and the shortest 
necked, have the same number of bones in the neck — the 
giraffe the same as the hog or the mole. And the bones 
which we recognise in the paddle of the turtle, are, by 
slight changes and gradations, adjusted so as to form the 
fin of the whale, the wing of the bird, and of the paw, the 
foot, and the hoof of the land mammifers. 

2. Instances of particular change are always accompanied 
by the corresponding readjustment of the entire structure. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



273 



No limb, organ, or structure, is isolated. Every part con- 
forms to every other part. "We are inclined to say, 
whatever part occupies our attention for the time, that to 
this particular object the system has been framed." Hence 
it is that the physiologist acquainted with comparative 
anatomy can infer from the fossil fragments of a skeleton — 
a mutilated bone — the entire structure and the habits of 
the animal to which it belonged. 1 And were all the bones 
of any geological period to be laid at his feet, he would be 
able to build up all their frames, "bone coming to his 
bone;" to reduce each species to its class, and each indivi- 
dual to its place, as harmonious parts of an all-related 
system. 

3. This unity of design is further illustrated by the fact 
that the same parts which are fully developed in some 
classes, exist in others only in what is termed " a rudi- 
mental" state. Thus, a row of small teeth are said to 
exist in the lower jaw of the young of the whale, before its 
birth; but, as they do not rise above the gums, they are 
useless for mastication, and gradually disappear. " Rudi- 
mental" organs of this kind may have special applications, 
of which we know nothing. In the instance named, for 
example, both the coming and going of the teeth may 
minister to the pleasure of the unborn animal; in which 
case, there would be the same reason for the process, as we 
are accustomed to assign for the existence of the animal at 
all. Our knowledge must not be made to limit the crea- 
tive designs. But even if such rudimental parts answer 
no other end, they indicate the relation of the species ; they 
point to a type, and are suggestive of the general plan. 
And as man could know little or nothing of the Divine 
Wisdom, apart from the classification of created objects, 

1 Cuvier's Discourse, prefixed to his Ossemens Fossiles, p. 47. ; 

T 



274 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



here are some of the innumerable helps to the necessary 
arrangement. 

4. This comprehensive plan of animal life, viewed co- 
existently, is still further illustrated by the recovery of the 
fossil remains of animals which have existed in successive 
states of the globe. They fill up the apparent blanks in the 
plan. Novel as many of these ancient forms are, they are 
never at variance with the order of the general system. 
Not one of them stands apart in isolation. The scheme is 
all-including ; so that the strangest organization belongs to 
it, and finds an appropriate place in it. 

5. Now it was only to have been expected that such in- 
dications of a great plan of animal existence would give 
rise to a number of hypotheses respecting both the mode of 
its production, and the principle of the classification of its 
members. Accordingly, by dint of overlooking some phe- 
nomena, of seeing others which existed only in the imagina- 
tion, of occasionally exalting particular instances into 
general principles, and of torturing doubtful circumstances 
till they seemed to utter the language desired, various 
theories have been formed, and have flourished in succes- 
sion; each being considered, for the time, a most remark- 
able discovery of science. 

6. As to the mode of production, Lamarck took occasion, 
from the obvious traces of a scheme of animal life, to ad- 
vocate, in his Philosophie Zoologique the extravagant 
hypothesis of the transmutation of species; according to 
which, there was no distinction of species originally; but 
each class has in the course of ages been derived from 
some other and different class, less perfect than itself, by a 
spontaneous effort at improvement. Now the only reply 
which is really due to this fancy, falsely called philosophy, 
is the origination of some counter fancy, equally baseless, 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



275 



but equally aspiring to the honours of philosophy. If, how- 
ever, the reply must needs partake of a grave character, it 
is obvious to remark, first, that while fossil geology ex- 
hibits abundant remains of distinct species, it presents no 
remains of any species in a state of transition into other 
species. Striking as the resemblance may be between any 
two species, still, what more can be said than that the 
difference is specific ? Short as the step may appear to be 
from the one to the other, it is an impassable chasm. And 
hence the same species is found, in many instances, to re- 
tain its essential characteristics through a long succession 
of strata, while, in some one of these very strata, new 
species come into view, not by a gradual change, but 
suddenly and completely ; leaving it to be inferred that all 
other species have had the same independent origin. 

On this subject, let us listen to the weighty testimony of 
Agassiz in his Report on the Fossil Fishes of the Devonian 
System, or Old Red Sandstone. " One of the first ob- 
servations to be made on the ichthyological fauna of the 
old red sandstone is, that it is wholly peculiar to this 
formation ; its numerous species differ alike from those of 
the Silurian system, and from those of the carboniferous 
strata: the greater position of the genera, even of the 
Devonian system are restricted to the duration of this 
geological system. ... It is a truth which I consider now 
as proved, that the ' ensemble 1 of organized beings was re- 
newed not only in the interval of each of the great geo- 
logical divisions which we have agreed to term formations; 
but also at the time of the deposition of each particular 
member of all the formations. For example, I think I can 
prove that in the oolitic formation, at least, within the 
limits of the Swiss Jura; the organic contents of the lias, 
those of the oolitic group properly so called, those of the 

T 2 



276 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



Oxfordian group, and those of the Portlandian group, 
as they occur in Switzerland, are as different from each 
other as the fossils of the lias from those of the Keuper, or 
those of the Portlandian beds from those of the Neocomian 
formation. I also believe very little in the genetic descent 
of living species, from those of the various tertiary layers 
which have been regarded as identical, but which, in my 
opinion, are specifically distinct. I cannot admit the idea 
of the transformation of species from one formation to 
another. In advancing these general notions, I do not 
wish to offer them as inductions drawn from the study of 
any particular class of animals, (of fishes for instance,) and 
applied to other classes ; but as the results of direct obser- 
vation of very considerable collections of fossils of different 
formations, and belonging to different classes of animals, in 
the investigation of which I have been specially engaged 
for many years, in order to assure myself whether the con- 
clusions which I had drawn from the tribe of fishes were 
applicable to this class only, or whether the same relation 
existed in the other remains of the animal kingdom." 1 

7. The advocate for the progressive transmutation of a 
species may be fairly pressed with the. inquiry, why the 
essential parts which characterize every individual member 
of that species, have not exhibited any corresponding 
development. The eye of the extinct Trilobite, for in- 
stance, one of the most ancient forms of animal life, but 
which has not been found in any strata more recent than 
the carboniferous series, exhibits an optical instrument as 
perfect as that of any crustacean now existing. Now surely 
if the condition of any crustaceous animal of the present 
day is the result of a long series of improving transmuta- 
tions from an inferior condition of preceding crustaceans, 
1 Twelfth Report of the Brit. Assoc. p. 85. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



277 



we may analogically look for a corresponding improvement 
in all its parts ; and, of all its parts, especially in its cha- 
racteristic parts ; and, of these, especially in so complex an 
organization as the eye. But the eye of the earliest 
crustacean is found to be as perfect as the eye of the last 
living Serolis that was caught ; leaving us to infer that the 
eye of this class has not depended for its structure on any 
preceding and progressive improvements, but that " it was 
created at the very first, in the fulness of perfect adaptation 
to the uses" 1 for which it was designed; and, further, that 
if such changes have not been necessary in order to account 
for the condition of the crustacean eye, neither have they 
been necessary to the present condition of that animal as a 
whole, nor productive of that condition. 

8. The observations of mankind for thousands of years, 
have furnished no instance of a transmutation of species. 
Exploded statements to the contrary are sometimes revived, 
and vague phenomena are, for a time, confidently reported. 
But on investigation it will be found, that all the imaginary 
instances of such changes may rank under one or other of 
the following heads, — supposed spontaneous generation, 
which is a thing distinct from the translation of species, 
and which will be presently noticed; or else a variation of 
the individual plant or animal, owing, not to a natural 
cause, but to artificial treatment to that effect; or else, 
that large class of instances which belong to an imagination 
more active than trustworthy, and not unwilling to be be- 
guiled. But not one example of a transmutation of species, 
we repeat, has ever been witnessed or proved. Now if it 
be said that this is a question of time, and that the evi- 
dence wanting to-day may come into existence a thousand 
ages hence, we have only to reply, that if we are to wait 
1 Dr. Buckland's B. Treatise, p. 403. 



278 



THE PRE- ADAMITE EARTH. 



for the phenomena, we had rather wait also for the hypo- 
thesis which proposes to explain them. Meantime, we may 
record our wonder, that parties who, on other subjects, re- 
fuse to believe anything in the absence of facts, evidence, 
induction, should here so readily dispense with them all as 
superfluities. 

9. The hypothesis proceeds on the assumption that the 
propensities of the animal have determined its organization ; 
that the structural peculiarities of a species have resulted 
from its prolonged efforts at something for which it was not 
originally adapted. Now, allowing this, it only remains 
for the theorist to explain what it is that determined the 
propensities of any given species. If, according to him, 
the organization, so far either from being one with the pro- 
pensity, or from giving direction to it, has had actually to 
be conformed to it, whence then this presupposed, organ- 
izing, creative propensity? 

10. In direct opposition to the transmutation of species, 
all the great changes of animal conformation which come 
under our notice are prospective; taking place, not in con- 
sequence of a new condition, but in preparation for it. 
Thus, the larva of the winged insect can only walk ; but, 
if we take it, and dissect it, just before its metamorphosis 
is completed, we find an apparatus in progress for flight 
through the air. The embryonic animal has a life adapted 
to its condition ; but this life is subordinate to the formation 
of organs for a life after birth ; and for which, during the 
whole period of gestation, it is unconsciously preparing. 

11. Distinct from the preceding, in particulars, but aim- 
ing at the same end, is the embryotic hypothesis ; according 
to which it is affirmed that the organic germs of all animals 
are identical, and that the higher animals, while in the 
womb, pass through all the successive conditions which, in 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



279 



the lower grades of animals, are permanent; that the 
quadruped, for example, is successively a fish, a reptile, 
and a bird, before it attains its permanent organic form. 
And the assumption which professes to account for these 
mutations is that of " an advance under favour of peculiar 
conditions," 1 by which, at some time, a fish produced a 
reptile ; a reptile, a bird ; and a bird, a beast. 

12. Now here again, we might remark, that as no such 
an advance has ever come under human observation, we 
might surely wait for the hypothesis, until the phenomena 
which it undertakes to explain are forthcoming. But as 
presumptive evidence of such an " advance" is supposed to 
exist in the embryotic changes referred to, we must not 
omit to glance at the nature of these changes. And the 
first remark proper to the subject seems to be this; the 
strong antecedent probability there existed, that marked re- 
semblances would be observable between the yet undeveloped 
embryos of different classes of animals. Eesemblauce to 
some extent was inevitable, for they are all to exist in the 
same world ; and the points of analogy would be multiplied 
in proportion to the analogous modes of their existence 
after birth. But prior to their birth, and while yet their 
ultimate differences were only in process of formation, their 
apparent resemblances would be the greater, the farther 
back we can carry our observations — resemblances implying 
chiefly the imperfection of our tests. 

13. It is obvious to remark also the strong likelihood 
there was that embryotic resemblances would be over- 
rated, and that mere likeness would be mistaken for 
identity. The tendency of the mind to generalize and con- 
clude on insufficient data, admits of abundant illustra- 
tion. It was only necessary for Marsigli to affirm certain 

1 Vestiges of Creation. 



280 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



spontaneous movements in the round apertures on the 
surface of sponges, and Ellis persuaded himself that he 
saw the same and something more; and Pallas reported, 
without examination, the assertion of Ellis ; and, for more 
than half a century, it was received as an established fact 
in natural history. And in a similar manner, it was only 
necessary for certain physiologists to point out fissures im- 
properly called bronchial, in the foetus of the mammal, and 
two or three other suggestive phenomena; and forthwith 
others imagined that they saw the gills of the fish, the 
heart of the reptile, and the brain of a number of animals 
in succession, in the same foetal form; and others too 
readily gave currency to such reports as unquestionable 
facts. Xow it ought to be sufficient to throw suspicion on 
the whole hypothesis when it is known, that these resem- 
blances only relate to some one organ or part of the foetus 
at a time ; that the likeness is seen only by dint of refusing 
to see the difference ; and that the difference to be kept out 
of sight relates sometimes to the foetus, and sometimes to 
the object with which it is compared, — thus, the primitive 
streak of the embryo resembles the zoophyte in which 
nutrition is performed by imbibition, but no notice must 
be taken of the fact that this rudimentary streak extends 
into a membrane which becomes the vascular area; it re- 
sembles a worm, inasmuch as it is cylindrical and has no 
limbs for motion, but no notice must be taken of the fact, 
that the worm has rings and contractile bands, for its 
motions, while the embryo has neither ; x and its brain may 
be thought to resemble the brain of different orders of 
animals, provided only that a sufficient variety be summoned 
for the comparison, and that from these a selection be made 

1 See Dr. W. Clark's Report on Animal Physiology in the Fourth 
Report of the Brit. Association, p. 114. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



281 



at a " certain point" of foetal development; taking care 
that such point be any stage of the development at which 
the resemblance may be thought to be most striking. 
" With what shadow of reason," asks Dr. Clark, in his 
Memoir on Foetal Development, 1 can any school of ana- 
tomists pretend to say, that one order of animals can pass 
into another order, in the way of ordinary generation, 
seeing that the indispensable respiratory foetal organs are 
so different in each? The fallacy which allows for a 
moment such an absurdity to pass, is this — that, to serve 
their purpose, they describe their foetus by its central por- 
tions only, and not by its whole mass, including its organic 
appendages, which are essential to its continued life, and its 
matured structure." 

14. It is to be remarked further, that many of those 
physiologists who have looked not unfavourably on these 
progressive foetal resemblances, have yet qualified their 
statements with such remarks as to make them perfectly 
useless to the advocate of the transmutation of species by 
ordinary generation. Thus Fletcher, in his Rudiments of 
Physiology after speaking of it as "a fact of the highest 
interest and moment" that the brain of every class of 
animals appears to pass, during its development, in suc- 
cession, through the types of all those below it, adds, " it 
is hardly necessary to say, that all this is only an approxi- 
mation to the truth ; since neither is the brain of all osseous 
fishes, of all turtles, of all birds, nor of all the species of 
any one of the above order of mammals, by any means 
precisely the same, nor does the brain of the human foetus 
at any time precisely resemble, perhaps, that of any 
individual whatever among the lower animals." Even if 

1 Read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, (1845.) See also 
the second volume of the Poissons Fossiles of Agassiz. 



282 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



the resemblance had been substantiated, it would not have 
proved the truth of the hypothesis in question; but here 
the inaccuracy of the resemblance itself is confessed. 

15. Beyond this, the serial character of the supposed 
development fails in the most essential parts. The first 
set of germinal membranes laid down are those of the 
organs proper to animal life, the nervous system and organs 
of motion; but, according to the hypothesis, they ought to 
be some vegetable resemblances. The first indication of 
the embryo is, as we have said, the primitive trace, 
the rudiment of a back bone, and of a continuous spinal 
cord; whereas, according to the hypothesis, it should have 
been something assimilating the embryo to the avertebral 
classes; but these three entire classes — radiata, mollusca, 
and articulata — are passed over without any corresponding 
foetal type. As to the organs of respiration ; at the very 
time when the lower vertebrates are quitting the ovum, and 
" when frogs and fishes are beginning to breathe by bron- 
chial tufts and gills, other amphibia and birds are breathing 
by allantdid, and never for an instant breathe by gills ; hot- 
blooded quadrupeds are breathing by allantoid and placenta 
jointly; while man is breathing by placenta alone." As 
to the heart of the foetus of a mammal, " it does not pass 
through the form which is permanent in the amphibia, but 
it does pass through a form not found permanent in any 
known creature. This grand correction of an old mistake 
we owe to the concurrent labours of Yalentine, Eathke, and 
BischofF, who stand "in the first rank of discoverers; and 
no good anatomist has pretended to contradict them. The 
hearts of birds and mammals do not, therefore, pass through 
forms which are permanent in fishes and reptiles." The 
development of the brain also is marked by corresponding 
differences; and the same is true of the individuality in 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



283 



respect to sex. 1 Indeed, it is only during the first 
beginnings of life, and while the organic structure is yet in 
its primary elements, that we are liable to be deceived by 
resemblances. But who would infer that because the far- 
distant mountain looked uniformly green, therefore only one 
kind of vegetable clothed it? And yet this would be only 
parallel to the inference that because there is a time when, 
owing to our imperfect means of discrimination, the liver 
and the lung are indistinguishable, therefore they are 
identical. As soon as ever organs begin to be distinguish- 
able, the distinctions are found to be specific. And, as far 
as we know anything on the subject, these specific differences 
are constant and immutable. 

In the attempt, then, to advocate the transmutation of 
species by generation, we have phenomena adduced, the ex- 
istence of which physiologists disprove; as the basis of a 
hypothesis whose object is to explain other phenomena 
which, it is admitted, no one ever saw. 

16. But, as if the foregoing hypotheses were not sufficiently 
indefensible already, each of them has to presuppose another 
hypothesis, in order to account for the existence of the 
first species, the hypothesis of spontaneous generation or 
production. By which it is meant, according to Buffon and 
others, that plants and animalcules make their appearance 
under circumstances where no germs could have existed, 
and that they are originated by a power inherent in certain 
material particles. 

17. When it is remembered, however, that most of the 
instances which were formerly relied on in proof of the 
hypothesis, can now be explained on ordinary principles, 
the natural inference is that an increase of knowledge will 
enable us to explain the residuary phenomena on the same 

1 Dr. Clark's Memoir on " Foetal Development." 



284 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EA11TH. 



principles. As to tenacity of life, it is known of some 
vegetable seeds that they will germinate after they have 
been kept for many centuries, and that such minute organ- 
isms as flour-eels, and wheel-animalcules may not only be 
reduced to perfect dryness, so that all the functions of life 
shall be suspended fur years, yet without the destruction of 
the vital principle, but that in " despite of drying in vacuo, 
along with chloride of calcium and sulphuric acid, for 
twenty-eight days, subjected to a heat of 248° F., some of 
them have been observed to recover." And as to the 
subtle manner in which germs thus tenacious of life obtain 
access to the interior of living bodies, the probability is 
that they can enter wherever air can penetrate. The fact 
that minute infusory animalcules can be raised with the 
watery vapour, and floated for a season in the atmosphere, 
deserves, as Humboldt remarks in his Cosmos, to be well 
considered in connexion with this subject; especially, since 
" Ehrenberg has discovered in the kind of dust-rain fre- 
quently encountered in the neighbourhood of the Cape de 
Verd Islands, at a distance of 380 sea miles from the 
coast of Africa, the remains of eighteen species of sili- 
ceous-shelled polygastric animalcules." And if entozoa — 
creatures living in the interior parts of other animals — have 
been found in embryos and in the eggs of birds; so also, 
says Tiedemann, have pins and small pieces of flint. 

18. Is it not enough to cast suspicion on the hypo- 
thesis, that when experimental efforts to procure spontaneous 
production have resulted in the appearance of anything, 
it should have been & full-grown forest of confervae, or an 
adult infusoria? These are certainly suggestive of pre- 
existing germs, and seem to presuppose them. But instead 
of the production of the more simple seed and egg, we 
have the complicated and developed individual itself. And 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



285 



that which further assures us that the individual animal- 
cule has, in such instances, been derived from another in- 
dividual of the same species as itself, is that its body has 
been found to be full of eggs. 

19. Indeed, the revelations of the microscope were 
hardly more fatal to the Brahminical doctrine, that animal 
life should never be destroyed for food, than they were, in 
skilful hands, to the hypothesis of equivocal generation. 
As no stomach had been previously rendered visible in the 
smallest species of Infusoria, such as monads, Lamarck 
and others hastily regarded them as consisting of a mere 
homogeneous substance, having neither mouth nor digestive 
cavity, and as nourished simply by means of absorption 
through the external surface of the body. And here, it 
was conjectured, we saw an illustration of the natural 
development of a particle to a mammal, at that point of 
the process where the organism stands between the vegetable 
and animal worlds. But Ehrenberg, by supplying these 
miscroscopic species with organic colouring matter as 
nutriment, has demonstrated that their bodies are highly 
organized, " provided in all cases with at least a mouth and 
digestive system." Accordingly his arrangement of In- 
fusoria is " based on the structure of the digestive system, 
which gives rise to the two natural classes of Polygastrica 
and Rotatoria." 1 Besides a digestive apparatus, Ehrenberg 
has discovered in them a generative, and often a muscular 
system. Both in structure and in functions, therefore, they 
are placed comparatively on a level with the larger animals. 
The blank which they were supposed to fill in the process 
of transmutation is left vacant. The only legitimate con- 
clusion is, that the smallest of them is derived from an 

1 Jenyns's Report on Zoology, British Association, 1834, p. 244. 



286 



THE PRE- ADAMITE EARTH. 



antecedent cause, as natural and uniform as that of any- 
other class of animated being. 

20. And this conclusion harmonises with the evidence 
of geology. Had spontaneous production, and the trans- 
mutation of species, been among the processes of nature, 
we might have expected to meet with abundant indications 
in the bosom of the earth. 1 The subterranean fossil 
museum might have been expected to be crowded with 
monstrous malformations. The fact is, however, that 
amidst all the vast accumulations of animal remains, not 
a single abnormal specimen has yet been found. Every or- 
ganic part is finished; every animal complete, — the first of 
his race as complete as its offspring of the present day ; 
every species articulating with every other species, and 
falling into the place appointed for it in a perfect all com- 
prehending plan. Accordingly, the verdict returned by all 
the enlightened geologists of the day — some of them by no 
means unduly biassed in favour of the view, is " that 
species have a real existence, and that each was endowed 
at the time of its creation with the attributes and organs 
by which it is now distinguished." 2 The following, there- 

1 " There are some," says Cuvier, in his Discours Preliminaire to 
the Ossemens Fossiles, " qui pensent qu'avec des siecles et des habi- 
tudes toutes les especes pourraient se changer les unes dans les autres, 
ou resulter d'une seule d'entre elles." But he naturally inquires, 
" Pourquoi les entrailles de la terre n'ont-elles point conserve les mo- 
nuniens d'une genealogie si curieuse ?" 

2 Such is the conclusion at which Mr. Lyell arrives, after occupying 
the first four chapters of the second volume of his " Principles of 
Geology," in a masterly examination of the arguments which have 
been advanced in favour of transmutation. See also De la Beche's 
" Geological Researches," p. 239. In the same view, Coneybeare and 
Buckland, Philips and Sedgwick, concur; and to these might be added 
the names of a number of eminent physiologists. Les especes perdues 
ne sont pas des varietes des especes vivantes, is Cuvier's first propo- 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



287 



fore, are to be regarded as among the first principles of 
physiology ; that even those species which most nearly re- 
semble each other, exhibit characteristic differences; and 
that these characteristic differences are constant. So that 
however short the interval between any two steps in an 
animal series may appear to be, it is still in reality an abrupt 
transition. 

21. Classification. — We have remarked also that the 
indications which are traceable that animal life is formed 
according to a plan, were likely to give rise to a number of 
hypotheses respecting the principle of the classification of 
the animal kingdom. Accordingly, some have fancied that 
if all the species could be collected and arranged, they would 
be found to form a cone or pyramid. Oken, and a German 
school of zoologists, contend that the animal kingdom is 
analogous to the anatomy of man — each class specially re- 
presenting a division of the human organs, such as the 
articulate representing the viscera, and the vertebrata the 
motive organs. Kaup, and another school, extend the fancy 
to the representation of the " five senses." Mac Leay pro- 

sition. " Does the hypothesis of the transmutation of species afford 
any explanation of these surprising phenomena ?" asks Professor 
Owen, referring to the facts resulting from his anatomical examination 
of fossil animals : " Do the speculations of Maillet, Lamarck, and 
Geoffroy derive any support from this department of Paleontology?" 
and he shows that comparative anatomy returns a decided negative. 
While Agassiz, at the end of his great work, Poissons Fossiles, after 
rejecting the scheme of natural development, affirms, " It is necessary 
that we recur to a cause more exalted, and recognise influences more 
powerful, exercising over all nature an action more direct, if we would 
not move eternally in a vicious circle. For myself, I have the con- 
viction that species have been created successively at distinct intervals, 
and that the changes which they have undergone during a geological 
epoch are very secondary, relating only to their fecundity, and to mi- 
grations dependent on epochal influences." 



288 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



pounded the theory, which Swainson and others have sub- 
sequently endeavoured to develop, 'that all natural groups, 
of whatever denomination, form circles; and that each 
of these circular groups is resolvable into exactly five 
others. 

22. Now the error which appeared in the transmutation 
hypothesis, is here repeated in another form. There, be- 
cause there is evidence that relations of animal resemblance 
universally exist, the method by which such resemblance is 
produced is unphilosophically inferred without evidence. 
Here, because such relations render the animal kingdom 
susceptible of some arrangement, it is inferred that the 
arrangement must be one of determinate numbers, or of 
geometrical forms. Such a hypothesis, however, has no 
warrant either in reason or in observation. It assumes a 
regularity, if not even an actual organization, in that which 
is only a mere abstraction, the system of nature. It loses 
sight of the natural irregularities of the inorganic world 
in all geological periods ; for unless the strata of the earth 
had been formed as regularly as the concentric coatings of 
an onion, the relations of their organized inhabitants could 
hardly be expected to be such as to presuppose the square 
compartments of a museum. Indeed, as long as organic 
nature is influenced by inorganic, certain gaps in the former 
cannot fail to exist. To suppose the contrary would be to 
infer that in many cases whole tribes of animals have been 
made, not with a view " to perform certain functions in 
the external world, but merely in order to complete the 
circularity of a group, to fill a gap in a numerical arrange- 
ment, or to represent (in other words, imitate) some other 
group in a distant part of the system." 1 But the Divine 

1 Strickland's Report on Ornithology before the British Association, 
1844, p. 177. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



289 



Creator has higher ends in view; nor can his mode of 
operation be thus prescribed, nor its results be predicted. 

23. The true system of classification in the animal king- 
dom, as in the preceding kingdoms, may be supposed to be 
that which determines the affinities of animals according 
to the order and to the relative value of their distinctive 
characters. Thus, regarding the earliest as the lowest in 
value, we ascend to the organs of nutrition, each organ 
rising in value as the order advances ; then to the organs 
of reproduction in succession, as of still greater value: 
and then to those of sensation and volition as of the highest 
value, including, of course, the development of the in- 
stinctive affections. So that the relationship is to be re- 
garded as nearest, when the resemblance lies between those 
characteristics which are of the highest value. 

24. According to this method, 1. the classification pre- 
supposes, in order to be perfect, a knowledge of all the 
physiological properties of animals ; of the order in which 
the mechanical, chemical, and symmetrical laws come into 
operation in their constitution ; and the order in which the 
nutritive and reproductive organs are developed. 2. The 
classification is made from a calculation of all the points of 
resemblance ; none being arbitrarily rejected as unimportant. 
3. It requires that each group shall be formed of such in- 
dividuals only as resemble each other more than they re- 
semble anything else, or, as have the greatest number of 
important properties in common. 4. It combines the 
principle of the subordination of characters — as of the 
animal functions to the vegetative, with the coincidence of 
the two ; for it proceeds on the principle that each system 
is all-related, so that the one graduates with the other. 
5. It provides not only for the arrangement of animals in 
natural groups, but also for the arrangement of these groups 

u 



290 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



in an ascending series according to the scale of animal per- 
fection ; for it recognises degrees of value or intensity in 
the main phenomena of the animal economy. 6. And, as 
we intimated when treating of vegetable classification our 
method has become more obvious and certain in the present 
department, owing to the new points of comparison and the 
new means of verification consequent on the additional 
characters of motion, sensation and volition. And it 
furnishes the important test which arises from successiveness, 
or the order in which distinctive characters are developed. 

XV. 

Contingent. — Innumerable illustrations exist to show 
that the arrangements of animal life are con tingent on the 
Divine appointment 

1. In calling attention to the complex adjustments be- 
tween the animal constitution and pre-existing nature, we 
may be reminded that such adaptations were made indis- 
pensable by the previous conditions of the system into which 
the new constitution came. But we have seen that these 
conditions themselves exhibit no original and inherent 
material necessity, but were primarily dependent on the 
Divine volition. Whether, therefore, we regard pre-existing 
nature as designed in anticipation of the animal constitu- 
tion, or the latter as simply adapted to the former, we have 
a new complication of the proof of a designing will. Even 
if animal life could be shown to be a necessary development 
of previously existing elements, still, as no one who admits 
that the properties and laws of the mineral and vegetable 
kingdoms were derived from God, would deny that He fore- 
saw all such developments, they must be held to be a new 
illustration of the Divine intention. No one can imagine, 
for example, that the air produced the ear, any more than 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



291 



he can that the ear produced the air ; or that the two, with 
their complicated and refined adaptations, exist together by 
accident. The light could not have produced the exquisite 
organization of the eye, any more than the eye, as an in- 
dependent organization, could have anticipated the myste- 
rious laws of light. 

2. But while the idea of a necessary development of 
animal life is a mere assumption, the fact of the Divine 
origination of matter at first, is strongly in favour of the 
inference of the Divine origination of every new purpose 
to which it is subsequently applied. In harmony with this 
view, we find that the fossil Fauna exhibits no indication 
of a regular development of species from the most simple 
up to the most complex. Of the four divisions of the 
animal kingdom, indeed, the principal, or vertebral, ap- 
pears last ; and, of this division, the four classes appear in 
the order of natural importance. But among the species 
of these classes, no such order is observable. For example, 
of the four orders of fishes, the oldest known fossil specimen 
belongs, as we have seen, to the highest order, and occurs 
in the upper Silurian rocks : while the two lowest orders 
do not make their appearance till we reach the cretaceous 
system. We might notice also the manner in which whole 
families appear, increase, flourish for a time, then decline, 
and finally disappear. In the tertiary series, too, we come 
suddenly on an almost entire change of species ; and yet so 
complete was the plan or outline of animal life, even at 
that early period, that it requires no reconstruction, or 
essential enlargement, for the Fauna of the present day. 

3. The directness of the Divine volition is to be inferred 
also from the ground there is to believe that animal life is 
more or less independent of mere external and pre-existing 
influences. That it presupposes the laws of the mineral 

u 2 



292 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



and vegetable kingdoms, and is vitally related to them, Ave 
have seen. Animals involve, in their construction, certain 
functional references to the length of the day, and to the 
seasons of the year. The weight of the earth, the density 
of the air, the dimensions of the solar system, have been 
taken into account in the plan of their constitution. But, 
besides this system of refined adjustments between things 
so widely diverse, there are numerous indications that the 
animal plan involves other and higher arrangements. There 
is, for instance, a particular period of the year in which 
the reproductive system of animals exercises its energies. 
And the complicated operations of this system c< are so ar- 
ranged that the young ones are produced at the time wherein 
the conditions of temperature are most suited to the com- 
mencement of life." Now, that the young should appear 
just at the season when their food appears, is itself a 
striking instance of adaptation; but that the time for the 
commencement of the reproductive process should have 
been fixed with a view to this coincidence ; that this com- 
mencement for the food having been fixed, say, at two 
months before, the commencement for the feeder should have 
been fixed at seven months before that, in order that both 
might fall due at the same time, this must be regarded as 
preternatural. The striking contrast between the embry- 
onic development of plants and animals is also deserving 
of attention; for, while "the primary object of vegetable 
structures appears to be the establishment of the functions 
of nutrition," the first indication of organic develop- 
ment in the animal embryo is a trace of the nervous 
system, a rudiment of an organ destined to subserve a 
higher order of life, and to subordinate the mere vegetable 
or organic life to its use. The definite and arbitrary 
manner in which peculiar organic distinctions and instincts 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



293 



are given and confined to certain animals, is further illus- 
trative of the contingency of the system on the Supreme 
will. 1 Surely no one can imagine that there was an in- 
herent organic necessity why all animals which chew the 
cud should also cleave the hoof ; or, any physical necessity 
why the cell of the bee should be hexagonal, and the bee be 
the only insect that builds a cell of such a form. 

Then, again, the very remarkable manner in which 
different nerves are endowed not with sensibility in general, 
but each with a different kind of sensibility, demonstrates 
that this property does not inhere in them necessarily. 
The nerve of touch is insensible to light; the eye may be 
fingered without pain, for the optic nerve is sensitive only 
to light. Each part of the nervous system is an arbitrary 
and special provision for a definite purpose. Indeed, so 
long as it is evident that the material substance is not the 
C principle of organic life, any more than the living principle 
is the material substance; and so long as it appears that 
no one organ is universal in the animal kingdom, or 
essential to the phenomena of animal life, so long must we 
recognise in the arrangements of this kingdom the operation 
of the Supreme will. And the fact also that animals can 
be trained to changes of food, and climate, and to the ac-. 
quisition of new habits, evinces that, within certain limits, 
they possess a constitution independent of everything but 
the creative appointment. 

4. And the same direct dependence of animal life 

1 That the power which determines these distinctions is not de- 
pendent on external physical influences, " is ascertained from the facts, 
that ova belonging to species the most different are all developed, 
according to their kinds, under similar external conditions; and that 
ova of the same species are true to their kinds, under conditions which 
are not absolutely the same for any two individuals." — Dr. W. Clarke's 
Report on Animal Physiology, Brit. Assoc. 1834. 



294 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



appears from the want of coincidence observable between 
the conditions of animal existence and the succession of 
these existences. It can hardly be necessary to repeat our 
settled conviction that the appearance of animal life has 
been made to depend on certain physical and organic con- 
ditions. But it may be important to restate, that it is by 
no means a consequence of this arrangement, that the 
existence of these conditions shall be invariably followed by 
the existence of the life. According to the theory of 
natural development, indeed, this connexion is invariable, 
inevitable; for these natural conditions are supposed to be 
causes, and the only causes necessary to the production of 
life ; so that if the new creation did not follow the new con- 
dition, the law of natural development would prove a 
fiction. Yet such apparent irregularities abound. For ex- 
ample, " as to the corals of the Silurian system, the Wen- 
lock species certainly did not make their appearance in the 
calcareous beds of the Caradoc series, where similar condi- 
tions prevailed." Again, certain families, the Nautilus, 
Echinus, and Terebratula, have pervaded strata of every 
age; why did the physical conditions of the secondary 
series fail to re-produce the Trilobites, as they did the Nau- 
tilus, both of which had existed together in the preceding 
series? Or what was there in the fishes — say the two 
orders of Cycloids and Ctenoids, which make their appear- 
ance for the first time in the cretaceous system, less suited 
to the temperature, and other conditions, of the preceding 
series, than in the Cestraciont family of that series to the 
conditions of the second and the third, throughout which 
they have continued to exist together even to the present 
day? Evidently, the physical conditions of life are 
essentially distinct from its causes, and could never have 
been unphilosophically confounded with them, but in order 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



295 



to serve a hypothesis. Add to which, the facts which 
fossil geology supplies, if they are to be admitted as evi- 
dence at all, are directly opposed to the theory of develop- 
ment. For while, as we have shown, the order in which 
the great vertebral classes come into view, harmonizes 
with the law of creative progression, the succession in 
which the orders of these classes make their appearance is, 
on the whole, in the reverse direction. Now if the succes- 
sion of the classes favours the theory of natural develop- 
ment, what is to be inferred from the succession of the 
orders ? It will not do to accept the one as evidence, and to 
put the other out of court. And then it is to be observed 
that, while the apparently different direction taken by 
these classes and orders may be perfectly compatible with 
the operation of Divine appointment, and even intention- 
ally illustrative of it, a single deviation from the supposed 
straight line of natural development, is entirely subversive 
of the theory. 

5. From such evidence, the only conclusion at which we 
can arrive is, that in the animal kingdom, as well as in the 
mineral and vegetable worlds, the originating cause is the 
Divine volition. And if so, the time of its commencement, 
the varieties which it should include, the order of their ap- 
pearance, their instincts and habits, and the geological and 
geographical distribution of the entire plan, are dependent 
on the Sovereign will. 

XVI. 

Ultimata. — If animal life be thus dependent on the 
Divine volition, we must expect to find that it will reveal 
the existence of ultimate truths. In the last stage, we 
found the mystery of organic life. In the present, we find 
the great mystery of sensation, the medium of enjoyment, 
added to the mystery of life. What is the principle of a 



296 



THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH. 



sense f How is it that impressions on the nerves can speak 
to the animal of an external world? How is it that, by 
the aid of its nervous system, it can become acquainted 
apparently not only with impressions, but with things; 
with the forms, and qualities, and actions of objects? And 
what is the underived cause of all the phenomena which we 
denominate instinct, affection, passion, and animal volition? 

1 . There are those who have set about the vain task of 
resolving all the phenomena of sensation into the operation 
of physical agents; but one of the first discoveries they 
have made is that they must be allowed to indulge in the slight 
inconsistency of supposing a principle not physical, in 
order to begin even to work out their theory. For a time, 
the vital principle was the popular hypothesis; but this 
was a principle which, as it did not belong to the domain 
of physics, was the very phenomenon which required ex- 
planation. Bichat preferred animal sensibility and con- 
tractility ; and these words are as descriptive, perhaps, of 
what we believe to take place, as any that can be employed ; 
but still they leave us to seek for the cause of the phe- 
nomena. And, says Lamarck, one of the most extravagant 
speculators on the subject, " I was soon convinced that the 
internal sentiment constituted a power which it was 
necessary to take into account." And, hence, Lawrence, 
in his lectures on physiology, while affirming that the same 
kind of reasoning which shows digestion to be the function 
of the alimentary canal, proves that sensation is the 
animal function of its appropriate organ, adds, "if we go 
beyond this, and come to inquire the manner how, the 
mechanism by which, these things are effected, we shall find 
everything around us equally mysterious, equally incompre- 
hensible." 

2. Further, "it is useful to remark, that the ultimate 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



297 



laws of nature cannot possibly be less numerous, than the 
distinguishable sensations or other feelings of our nature, — 
those I mean which are distinguishable from one another in 
quality, and not merely in quantity or degree." 1 In rela- 
tion to the phenomenon of colour, for example, no evidence 
that some chemical or mechanical action invariably pre- 
ceded the phenomenon, would " explain how or why a 
motion, or a chemical action, should produce a sensation of 
colour." And the same is true of every class of sensations. 
Point out as many intervening phenomena as we may, we 
sooner or later come to a point where a principle is to be 
presupposed. In every attempt at explanation, we have 
to introduce the idea of some antecedent or other which 
produces the sensation. In other words, the sensitive pro- 
cess is not caused by sensation, but by some power which 
exists independently of the animal in which its effects are 
developed. 

Here, again, animal life, like organic life, is to be 
viewed in relation either to space or to time. Kegarded in 
its relation to space, the question arises, how came it really 
and objectively to be? We may trace the phenomena 
which it exhibits, from the adult animal to the embryo; 2 or 
from the animal of to-day through fossiliferous strata of 
every age, and through varying generic forms, back to the 
first form of its existence, but at no stage can we find that it 
contains anything to account for its origination. And could 
we have investigated the first animal form that breathed, 

1 Mills' Logic, ii. § 2. 
2 In his work on Physiology, Tiedemann remarks, "When it is 
said that organic movements are occasioned by external influences, 
we do not admit that they are the immediate effects of the external 
mechanical or chemical impressions; but we assert that they are the 
effects of powers which the external impression, be it mechanical or 
be it chemical, has thus solicited to act." 



298 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



we must have felt instinctively, that the reasons of its sensa- 
tional existence at all and of that existence being what it 
was, were grounded alike in the will of God. And then, 
as to its relation to time ; if the first moment of animal 
sensation revealed a benevolent Creator, the second moment 
revealed a benevolent or ever acting Providence, for that 
sensation continued. To suppose that because we see 
nothing more than the organic processes, therefore there is 
nothing more, is to confound the means of sensational mani- 
festation with the thing manifested. Laws are not causes. 
Nor do the regularity of the laws denote the absence of the 
Law-giver. Rather, they demonstrate His presence. Nor 
does the continuance of the organic processes render them 
less dependent than they were at first — as if they could ac- 
quire self-sufficiency by the lapse of time. They are now 
what they were when they were called into existence ; the 
mere means of the manifestation of an independent and an- 
terior power. 

4. And thus we have found that everything traceable to 
an ultimate fact, involves a mystery which points us silently 
but emphatically to Him whose Nature it is calculated to 
illustrate. That one class of physical phenomena, — for 
example, the inorganic — is associated with motion only ; 
that another class — the organic — is associated with motion 
and life; and that another class of organized phenomena is 
associated with motion, life, and sensation, is, substantially, 
all that we can learn. Why motion and matter, life and 
matter, or sensation and matter, should thus be found in 
union, can be explained by no physical law whatever. Here 
all the sciences are equally and utterly at fault. They 
cannot show that the union is necessary ; but only that, as 
far as observation goes, the conjunction is uniform. They 
cannot imitate, but only proclaim it. Our theory affirms 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



299 



that the sufficient reason why activity, life, and enjoyment 
exist in creation, is that the same properties exist in an in- 
finitely higher respect in the Divine Creator; that one 
reason, at least, why He uniformly associates each with a 
certain class of phenomena, is that, as the ultimate end of 
each is the manifestation of His Nature, such uniformity is 
essential in order to our attainment of that end; and that 
the mystery investing the union of each with a certain class 
of phenomena, is just that which necessarily attends the 
arbitrary conjunction of things essentially different — of 
Creative mind with created matter. The mystery would 
not, could not be diminished, were activity, life, and sensa- 
tion to be associated with any other class of material pheno- 
mena. And this very fact, by proclaiming the dependence 
of motion, life, and enjoyment on the Will of the Creator, 
promotes the ultimate end of creation by disclosing the 
power and wisdom, the goodness and boundless resources of 
His exalted Nature. 

XVII. 

Necessary truth. — The law of ultimate facts conducts us 
to the law of necessary truth. 

1 . We have seen matter take possession of space, and life 
take possession of matter ; now, we find sensibility added to 
life. And whether we look at the addition as an object or an 
event, in its relation to space or to time, we cannot but feel 
that the idea of, at least, a conscious Creator is indispen- 
sable. The sentient object contains nothing in itself to ac- 
count for anything more than the manifestation of its pecu- 
liar endowments; the endowments themselves authorita- 
tively refer us to an independent cause; for to conceive of 
their absolute self-origination is impossible. 

Or if, tracing back the existence of animal life histori- 



300 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



cally, we conceive of the first of its kind, we are compelled 
to presuppose an adequate cause of that life. Nor can we 
then conceive of that Conscious cause as not existing. We 
cannot but conceive of Him as existing prior to all objective 
revelation, and independently of it. In the objective world 
we behold the manifestation of an attribute, which could 
not but have existed subjectively from eternity. This new 
stage of creation brings to light another of the necessary 
perfections of the Creator. 

XVIII. 

Change, — Once more we are brought to that point in 
our subject which leads us to speak of the law of change. 

1. And, again, we have to remark that, in addition to 
the reason for expecting such a change derivable from the 
fact that it is involved in the very nature of a progressive 
system, the introduction of animal life brings with it an 
entirely new ground for anticipating yet another stage. 
But the question with which we have now especially to do, 
relates to the reason that made the time of the great change 
which brought in the human dispensation, the right time. 
For even those who, as we think, erroneously adopt the 
hypothesis of development by natural law, must admit that 
the Lawgiver would prospectively regulate the development 
of the law, for the same reason that the law itself was 
appointed. 

2. Admitting, then, that the successive changes of crea- 
tion have not hitherto taken place either accidentally or 
capriciously, we have to advert to the reason of the next 
change which ended the mere animal economy. Now the 
event has declared that the new stage was to be dis- 
tinguished by the creation of man. The advocates of 
development by natural law would infer, therefore, that as 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



301 



soon as ever certain natural conditions were present, man 
would emerge into being by an inevitable necessity; that 
the only reason for his appearance would be the concur- 
rence of certain favourable organic conditions, independently 
of any Divine interposition. Now, while we freely admit 
that the time of man's creation presupposes the existence 
of innumerable conditions, organic and inorganic, and shall 
hereafter have to direct our admiring attention to the in- 
conceivable complication of these conditions, we must protest 
more earnestly than ever against the attempt to confound 
created conditions with the Creating cause. For aught that 
geology can show to the contrary, man might have appeared 
at a much earlier period than he did, had it so pleased his 
Creator. The origin of many of the warm-blooded species 
around him dates from an earlier period; and who shall 
say that the mere natural conditions which their appearance 
presupposes were not adequate for the time of his appear- 
ance, if the Deity had so pleased ? Were we confidently to 
affirm their adequacy, we should not be so unphilosophical 
as they are who argue that because an event cannot take 
place without certain. conditions, therefore it must uniformly 
and inevitably take place with them. 

3. While it is admitted, then, that, in harmony with the 
law of progression, the creation of man could not be ex- 
pected to take place prior to the existence of certain natural 
conditions, whether or not it might then be expected, would, 
we believe, depend on what we have called the law of the 
end ; or, rather, on the coincidence of the two laws. We have 
to ask, then, whether the ultimate end of the present stage 
of creation had, in any sense, been adequately attained? 
Does the long succession of animal worlds, including the 
present, exhibit all the illustrations of all sufficient Bene- 
volence, which, under the circumstances, might have been 



302 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



expected? Now if we can be content with answering this 
question inferentially and approximately — the only kind of 
answer which, in the present instance, our mental constitu- 
tion and our data render possible — we can only return one 
reply, and that in the affirmative. If it should appear, for 
example, not only that the animal economy is minutely 
adapted for enjoyment, but that the complicated arrange- 
ments of the inorganic and vegetable worlds were prospec- 
tively constructed with a view to that enjoyment; so that 
where before we saw only design we now see goodness also ; 
if it should appear, further, that animal life has been suc- 
cessively modified, so as to be kept in harmony with the 
altered character of the other kingdoms of nature; that 
this succession of changes has been, on the whole, a succes- 
sion of enlargements, so that both the domains of animal 
life, and the degree of animal enjoyment, have ever been on 
the increase; and that every element, region, and situation, 
where life can exist, is crowded with animated beings, as if 
Goodness rejoiced to find, in the endless diversity of the 
physical conditions, scope for its own endless resources to 
meet them, and to convert them into new stores of enjoy- 
ment; what more can be necessary to evince the all-suffi- 
ciency of Creative benevolence ? 

4. Now that all these conditions are realized, and realized 
in a manner the variety and degree of which is inconceiv- 
able, is beyond all question. Animal physiology shows, as 
we have seen, that the ways in which the inorganic and 
vegetable creations were preconfigured to the requirements 
of animal life, are literally innumerable. Complicated 
though the laws, even of the first of these, were, to a degree 
which science probably will never be able fully to explain ; 
the addition of the second complicated them still further; 
and, though the complication was again repeated in the 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



303 



addition of the animal economy, jet every one of them all 
then became, for the first time, a channel of pleasure. As 
if every element and law of the material universe had been 
selected, weighed, measured, and commingled, to form a 
vast apparatus for animal well-being alone, the whole com- 
bined to welcome the new-made sentient creation, and to 
bathe it in enjoyment. And " the world, once inhabited, 
has apparently never, for any ascertainable period, been 
totally despoiled of its living wonders. But there have 
been many changes in the individual forms ; great altera- 
tions in the generic assemblages ; entire revolutions in the 
relative number and development of the several classes. 
Thus the systems of life have been varied, from time to 
time, to suit the altered condition of the planet, but never 
extinguished." 1 As we ascend from the first few species of 
the Snowdon slates, to the hundreds of species in the Silu- 
rian formations, and number almost by thousands in the 
oolite, and by thousands on thousands as we pass through 
the tertiary, till we emerge amidst the hundreds of thou- 
sands of now existing species, we are struck not merely 
with additions but with changes. Species, genera, whole 
groups of animals, come in, and die out ; to be replaced and 
followed by others in turn. Four times, at least, do these 
changes take place in the course of the tertiary era; and 
to an extent which leaves hardly a species of the first 
period extant among the species now living. Of testaceous 
creatures, for example, the conchoiogist finds about seven 
thousand living species. But of these he finds not one 
among the four thousand fossil kinds, by the time he has 
descended to the chalk formation. General analogies of 
structure and adaptation remain, but the species are all 

1 Supplementary Note to Prof. Powell's Connexion, &c. ; by John 
Phillips, Esq., p. 309. 



304 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



changed. 1 Of fishes, the carboniferous, oolitic, and chalk 
formations, present respectively an entire change of genera. 
Agassiz, who enumerates seventeen hundred species of fossil 
fishes, and about eight thousand living species, states that, 
with the solitary exception of a species found in the nodules 
of claystone, on the coast of Greenland, and which is pro- 
bably a modern concretion, he has " found no animal in all 
the transition, secondary, and tertiary strata, which is 
specifically identical with any fish now living." 2 Indeed, 
not a single species of fossil fishes has yet been found that 
is common to any two great geological formations. 3 

5. The evidence, however, that animal life, once intro- 
duced on the earth, has been continued through immeasur- 
able periods, and not only continued, but enlarged, and not 
only enlarged, but changed again and again for new systems 
of life — though sufficient of itself to establish the power of 
the Deity to impart unlimited sentient enjoyment — we 
have the means of increasing to any amount. As to the 
wonderful diversity of animal sizes, we might begin with 
Ehrenberg's polishing slate, formed of infusoria, of which 
about 41,000 millions are contained in a cubic inch; or 
still lower with the animalcules of the Easeneisen or iron- 
clod, of which a cubic inch contains about a billion ; and 
we might show them ranging through all the intermediate 
degrees up to the crocodilean Megalosaurus of fifty or 
seventy feet in length, or to the Dinotherium giganteum, 
the largest of all terrestrial mammalia yet discovered. We 
might speak of the vast variety of animal forms; but, of 
these, the mind is apt to fix only on the more strange and 
striking — the heavy-armed megatherium, the large-eyed 

1 Lyell's Prin., iii. 369—373. Fifth Edit. 

2 Poissons Fossiles, Tom. i. pt. xxx., T. iii. p. 1 — 52. 

3 Br. Buckland, vol. i. p. 273—277. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



305 



ichthyosaurian, the colossal lizard iguanodon, the long- 
necked plesiosaurian, and the still more monstrous bat- 
winged pterodactyle — and to overlook the ten thousand 
ordinary forms of animal life; while to think of the internal 
structures suggested by, and answering to, all these forms, 
is to be absolutely overwhelmed. Adverting to the multi- 
plication of life characteristic of some species, we might 
point to the remarkable fact that the creatures commonly 
referred to as the smallest in size, should be those which, 
by their rapid increase, present themselves in the most 
amazing masses. Thus the monadae, the smallest of in- 
fusoria, form, by accumulation, subterraneous strata many 
fathoms in thickness. The mountain limestone, about a 
thousand feet thick, and often many miles in length and 
breadth, consists of nothing else than the remains of coral- 
line and testaceous forms compressed into hard masses. 
In relation to animal fecundity, it is enough to refer either 
to parts of the Greenland seas so swarming with medusae 
that, as it has been curiously calculated, in a cubic mile 
the number is such that, allowing one person to count a 
million in a week, it would have required eighty thousand 
persons, from the creation of the world, to complete the 
enumeration; or to the hotter zones of the earth, where, 
between the tropics, many thousand square miles of ocean 
teem with light-engendering life; and, of " the wide level 
glowing with lustrous sparks, every spark is the vital 
motion of an invisible animal world." Of the universality 
of animal life we shall speak again ; for the present it may 
be sufficient to state, generally, that, from the floor of the 
ocean, where its depths surpass the height of our loftiest 
mountains, every successive stratum of waters is crowded 
with its own orders of life; and that from the sea-shores 
where the innumerable hosts of light-flashing mammaria 

x 



306 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



" turn each wave into luminous foam," up through every 
stage of ground rising to the line of eternal snow, animal 
life is adapted to every part, and is diffused over the whole. 

6. Here, surely, is evidence more than adequate to attest 
the sufficiency of Divine benevolence for the same kind of 
sentient enjoyment to any possible extent. That the dis- 
play, boundless as it is to us, is not absolutely infinite is 
admitted, for such a display is an impossibility; and, if 
possible, would be utterly useless to man as a proof of 
infinite goodness. That the display, indefinite as it is to 
us, might be more extended still, inasmuch as the planet 
itself might have been more extended, is admitted; and the 
same might be said, and would be true, even though the 
enlargement should advance for ever. But the question is, 
whether the existing display of the Divine resources is not 
sufficient to warrant the conviction, that, even in the 
event of such enlargement, Creative Benevolence would be 
more than adequate to replenish the whole with enjoyment ; 
that though the largest material area must be necessarily 
limited, the goodness of God could fill the whole, and show 
itself unlimited? Now, no one can doubt, judging from the 
proofs we possess, the adequacy of the Divine resources for 
an ever-increasing exercise of the same kind of benevolence 
to any extension of space or of time. But, if the design of 
the animal creation be to illustrate, in the sense explained, 
the all-sufficiency of the Divine goodness, we must admit, 
that not until the evidence of such sufficiency was complete, 
could the appropriate time for man's creation have arrived. 

XIX. 

Reason of the Method. — Eespecting the reason of the 
Divine method in creation, we have again to remark that it 
is twofold; relating , partly, to the constitution of the 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



307 



creature by whom the method is to be studied, and involv- 
ing his well-being; and partly to his destiny, as a being 
capable of voluntarily promoting the great end of creation, 
and so involving, in addition, the glory of the Divine 
Creator. 

L In illustration of the first part, it would be easy to 
show, were this the proper place, that there is not one of the 
laws of the method to which our attention has been directed, 
which is not indispensable. Thus, by placing the animal 
in universal relation to the inorganic and vegetable king- 
doms, and by expressing this complicated relation with all 
the constancy and regularity of law, the Creator was but 
saying, in effect, in reference to man, Let his domestica- 
tion of animals and their subserviency to him, be possible. 
And so also in constructing the animal economy according 
to a plan, He was, in effect, determining that comparative 
anatomy, and animal physiology, should be possible to man. 
The training and government of animals are among man's 
first lessons on the art of self-government, especially in the 
pastoral and agricultural states of society, while their 
habits and instincts are full of instruction, and the sights 
and sounds with which they enliven creation are perpetually 
appealing to his emotions. 

But, then, if man is to be educated and benefited by 
this stage of the Divine procedure, a medium must be ob- 
served between a disheartening depth and diversity in its 
laws, on the one hand ; and a tame, unexciting superficiality 
and sameness, on the other. The effect of the former ex- 
treme would be, that the volume of nature would never be 
opened ; and the result of the latter, that it would be shut 
almost as soon as opened. Now that such a medium is ob- 
served, is evident from the event. The zoology of nature is, 
ordinarily, the first book that engages the attention of child- 

x 2 



308 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



hood, and stimulates its opening efforts at comparison. It was 
the book from which the father of the human race received his 
" first lessons on objects." 1 And though from that time to 
this, man has been exploring its pages, yet, so far from being 
exhausted, it never engaged so much attention as it does at 
present, nor so filled the student with the conviction that it 
is inexhaustible. But it addresses only the attentive eye and 
the willing ear. For the observant and comparing eye of 
an Aristotle, 2 it has still unnumbered facts awaiting the 
right arrangement, and laws admitting of illustration to an 
indefinite extent. And for the listening ear, it is ever 
uttering new iEsopian fables, and each with a weighty 
moral ; but only for the listening ear. 

2. The second part of the reason is equally self-com- 
mending; for if animated nature is to be so construed by 
man as to subserve the ultimate end of creation, all the laws 
which we have pointed out as belonging to the method of 
the Divine procedure are, in one respect or another, indis- 
pensable. They have made the manifestation of the Creator 
possible. We cannot, indeed, conceive of his operations, 
except as activity according to law; for He is "the God of 
order." So that in embodying law, and making it visible, He 
was saying, in effect, Let the knowledge of the Lawgiver 
be possible. In imprinting certain signs of dependence on 
animated nature, He is, in effect, leading up our minds to 
His own independence. The manner in which He has been 
pleased to add sentient enjoyment to organic life, is stu- 
diously adapted to remind us that the addition was by no 
means inherently necessary ; but that everything relating 
to the mode of its manifestations, to the extent of the animal 

1 Gen. ii. 19, 20. 

2 Conformity of structure is the leading principle of his classifica- 
tion of animals, in his work, napi Zujim 'LaropiaQ, as well as of Cuvier 
in his Le Regne Animal. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



309 



kingdom, and to its progressive filling up, are all referrible 
to His own purpose. So also of the selected and prepared 
variety of natural productions which awaited the coming 
of man; " till that variety was occasioned on the globe, it 
was not the fitting place for intellectual man that it now 
is. For, surely, among other uses and correlations of the 
visible creation, this is one — by its inexhaustible diversity, 
and ever-growing newness, to interest with a perpetual 
charm the growing mind of a rational being, and to lead 
him to the cultivation of the divine thing within him, which 
raises him above all that his senses make known; and thus 
to fit him for the highest contemplation of which he is 
capable ; namely, the relation which he bears to the unseen 
Author of all this visible material world." 1 

3. Here again, however, the means must be measured, 
and the evidence balanced between two extremes. The signs 
of the Divine presence and agency must be sufficient for 
conviction, but not for compulsion. Accordingly, every 
law has its apparent exception ; and every phenomenon 
its centre or circumference of difficulty and mystery. The 
uniformity of nature holds on its way, leaving man to infer 
its Divine origination and superintendence, or, if he will, to 
" explode the hypothesis of a God." The evidences of 
design are inexhaustible ; but if man chooses to call certain 
things which his - knowledge but of yesterday' fails at present 
to explain, defects, no coercive power restrains him. Proofs 
of the Divine goodness are lavished around him ; but if he 
is pleased to infer that the conflicting instincts of animals, 
and animal death, are incompatible with goodness, though 
forming, in fact, a provision for securing the greatest 
amount of sentient enjoyment — he is at responsible liberty 
to do so. The laws of nature are not audibly proclaimed 

1 Professor Phillips. 



310 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



from Sinai; though, to the apprehensive mind, every 
object is a table of stone, written over with the finger of 
God. Nature is a volume which is " open night and day," 
and he that runneth may read. But while to one the very 
first page is gloriously inscribed with the great name of the 
Author, to another every page is a blank ; for it is written 
throughout with sympathetic ink. 

XX. 

The ultimate end. — The laws of the method, and the 
reason of it, find their end, in relation to the present stage 
of the Divine procedure, in contributing to illustrate the 
all-sufficiency of the goodness of God. 

1. In harmony with the view already propounded, that 
each preceding display of the Divine perfection may be ex- 
pected to be brought forwards and enlarged in each succes- 
sive stage of creation, we have to remark on the continued 
exercise of the power of the Deity. During the whole of 
the period now under consideration, the forces of inorganic 
nature continued, as far as we know, in full activity. The 
celestial mechanism was ever in motion. On our own 
planet, the gradual uprising of the Carpathians, the Pyre- 
nees, the Alps, and other mountain chains, showed the 
unspent activity of the subterraneous forces. While the 
regular reproduction of organic life after each geological 
change, and on the return of every season, went on aug- 
menting the proofs of the all- sufficiency of the Divine 
Power. But here were now new displays of the same 
energy. It originated and sustained the new principle of 
animal life in all its endless varieties of organization. Life 
by no means necessarily results from any of these varieties. 
And hence it is that no organ is universal in the animal 
kingdom. Uniform, therefore, as the connexion may be 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



311 



between animal organization and animal life, the former is 
necessary to the latter, not for its existence, bnt only for 
its exhibition. And the more complicated the organization, 
the richer the illustration supplied of the energy of the 
great originating Cause. The single property of muscular 
contractility, adapted and employed as it is by the Divine 
wisdom, converts the breathing frame into a system of 
animal mechanics of prodigious power and incessant activity. 
But in order to form an idea of the display of energy added, 
by this stage of creation, to all that had gone before, we 
should be able to multiply the average strength of each 
animal engine by the average number of myriads living at 
any one time, and these again by the myriads of ages which 
have elapsed since animal life commenced. 

2. And here again Power is seen subservient to Wisdom; 
presenting its vast resources as means for the accomplish- 
ment of important ends. In the first stage, for instance, 
we saw that air was the great agent in the changes of 
meteorology ; in the second, we saw every leaf of the forest 
feeding on it; and now we find it discharging additional 
offices, as the breath of animal life, and the vehicle of sound. 
Thus, at every step, our views of the prospective arrange- 
ments of creation acquire a wider range, and the proofs of 
Design become more complicated and profound. Again : 
we saw that the atmosphere is composed of different kinds 
of air, and that these again are of different densities. What 
then will take place when two or more kinds of air are 
brought together? will not the heavier subside, and the 
lighter ascend, like oil floating on water? The analogy of 
gases to liquids would lead us to expect this. But the 
" principle of gaseous diffusion," as it is called, determines 
otherwise. Two kinds of air — say hydrogen and carbonic 
acid, which latter, bulk for bulk, is twenty times heavier than 



312 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



hydrogen — cannot be in contact without melting away into 
each other, and becoming uniformly mixed. Is any end to 
be answered by this remarkable law? Is it a provision ? 
Now that the animal kingdom is come, if not before, we 
can reply to the inquiry. If the heavy carbonic acid of 
the atmosphere, copiously generated as it is from a variety 
of sources, had simply obeyed the law of gravitation, and 
rested on the surface of the earth, animal life would have 
been poisoned in its birth. If the whole were collected 
into a bed or layer, it is calculated that it would surround 
the surface of the earth with a stratum of about thirteen 
feet in thickness. In this irrespirable all-encircling ocean, 
life would be impossible. But the law of inter-diffusion is 
always in silent operation, obviating the evil. By it, the 
most noxious exhalations are diluted, and made innocent. 
And thus — not by a chemical action of the gases on each 
other — but by simple mixture, by an aerial mechanism, a 
world of life and happiness exists, where else there would 
have stagnated and slept an ocean of death. 

3. What is the form or figure to be given to a solid 
body, of certain dimensions, in order that it may move 
through the air or water with the least resistance? Mathe- 
matical reasoning of a very abstruse nature determines 
that it must be a curve. But the curve-like face or front 
of fishes anticipates the discovery, and shows their adapta- 
tion, on mathematical principles, for most easily moving 
through the element they were made to live in. The art 
of ship-building has reached its present perfection as the 
result of many corrections, improvements, and slowly- 
matured devices. They are all forestalled in nature — the 
boat-like figure ; the paddle-shaped levers, and their succes- 
sive impulses ; the rudder-like tail ; the sail-like membrane, 
hoisted or furled, with ease, for scudding before the breeze. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



313 



The valves by which the maker of a hydraulic engine pre- 
vents the retrograde motion of the fluids which are to pass 
through particular parts, were performing their functions 
in the animal economy before man was made. Long-con- 
tinued mathematical and chemical experiments have led to 
a succession of improvements in the instruments of the 
optician; but on comparing each, in succession, with the 
eye, they are found to be all there ; together with a number 
of provisions — exquisite refinements of provision — unknown 
to man's imperfect workmanship, and by which the refract- 
ing powers of the eye are instantly adjusted to the different 
distances of the objects viewed, the organ is rendered achro- 
matic, is protected, kept clean, and moved in various 
directions. The engineer makes his axles and various parts 
of his machinery hollow, for it has been discovered that 
hollow rods and tubes, of the same length and quantity of 
matter, have more strength than solid ones. The bones of 
animals are all more or less hollow ; and thus attain the 
end of the greatest strength with the least weight and 
quantity of matter. In the bones of birds, this principle 
is remarkably exemplified, as well as in the construction of 
their quills ; and thus they are adapted for flight. But, in 
addition, in distinction from all other animals, the air- 
vessels of their lungs communicate with the hollow parts of 
their bodies, enabling them to blow out their bodies as we 
do a bladder, and thus to rise and to regulate their flight. 
The air-bladders of fishes answer a similar purpose. Mathe- 
matical reasoning demonstrates that if it be proposed to fill 
a certain space with the greatest number of little cells, all 
of the same size and shape, there are only three shapes 
which will answer ; and that, of these, that which combines 
the greatest convenience with the greatest strength, is the 
figure of six equal sides. Now this is precisely the shape 



314 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



of the cells of bees, by which they effect the greatest pos- 
sible saving both of room and of material. But more ; the 
higher parts of algebra enable the mathematician to prove 
that, to save the most room, and to give the greatest 
strength to the cell, the roof and the floor must be made 
of three square planes meeting in a point ; and that there 
is one particular inclination of these planes to each other 
where they meet, which effects a greater saving of material 
and of labour than any other inclination could effect. 
Thousands of years before the mathematician had slowly 
and abstrusely worked his way to this conclusion — a con- 
clusion of which Newton was ignorant, though it is one of 
the fruits of his most wonderful discovery — the bee was 
acting in harmony with it in every cell which it made. 
As far as we know, the beaver builds his dam on principles 
as mathematically correct, to give the greatest resistance 
to the water in its tendency to turn the dam round, as the 
bee its cell. 1 But the illustrations of Creative wisdom, in 
the animal kingdom, are endless. Every page of science 
teems with them. 

4. The particular and proximate ends attained in the 
animal economy are innumerable, and yet all related. For 
example: there is hardly a bone which has not a constitu- 
tion of its own, or a disposition of its material specifically 
adjusted to its place and use; there is not one of these which 
is not formed in relation to the whole individual structure 
to which it belongs ; there is not an individual structure 
which is not formed in relation to the entire scheme of 
animal organization ; while that scheme itself exists in close 
relationship to the whole circle of external nature. Still 
more are we impressed with the resources of Creative wisdom 

1 See the admirable Preliminary Treatise of the Library of Useful 
Knowledge, on the Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



315 



when we reflect, that while the admission of a single new 
principle into a complicated machine is attended with re- 
sults which the utmost ingenuity can hardly anticipate, the 
indescribable variety of form and condition in which animal 
life seems to revel is the result of a principle endlessly 
diversified, ^as if for the sole purpose of showing that the 
difficulties created can be overcome. We might instance 
the various modes of reproduction, gemmiparous and gem- 
muliparous, fissiparous and oviparous, marsupial and vivi- 
parous; and to the diversified kinds of locomotion. The 
number of distinct species of insects already known is about 
a hundred thousand ; but while every species differs from 
all the rest, conformity is preserved throughout the whole to 
the same general plan of construction. Even when the 
purpose to be attained is identical, the means which are 
employed are inconceivably diversified, and although this 
diversity has to be carried through the minutest parts of 
the organization, yet every structure, from the most simple 
to the most complicated, is alike finished, and perfectly 
adapted to its destined condition. And when we find, in 
addition, that all this variety of mechanical contrivances, 
chemical agencies, prospective arrangements, compensations, 
and comprehensive inter-dependencies, is the development of 
a scheme which embraces the whole range of zoology ; and 
that even when no other end appears to be answered by any 
part of the process, it has, at least, a direct application in 
filling up a place which would be otherwise unoccupied in 
the all-comprehending system, we almost involuntarily con- 
fess to the boundlessness of the Creative wisdom. 

5. But here, both Power and Wisdom are seen in sub- 
servience to Goodness. The results of the preceding stages 
of creation are brought on to the present, So that on look- 
ing back from this advanced position, we can now see good- 



316 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



ness, where before we beheld only wisdom and power; for we 
perceive that both the productions of power, and the 
arrangements of wisdom, waited to find their places in the 
service of Benevolence ; that when Omnipotence was laying 
the foundations of the earth, and Infinite Wisdom was rear- 
ing the superstructure, it was only that Goodjiess might 
have a theatre in which to display its inexhaustible 
resources of animal enjoyment. 

6. Now what are the conditions on which the conclusion 
— that animated nature is calculated to illustrate the all- 
sufficiency of the goodness of God — might be reasonably 
accepted? The most obvious and general of these seems 
to be that the tendency of animal life should decidedly pre- 
ponderate in favour of enjoyment. The monuments of 
power and skill are to us infinite. Had the amount of 
animal suffering borne any proportion to them, or had it 
been nearly balanced with animal enjoyment, we might 
have hesitated as to the Benevolence of the Creator, in this 
particular. But the tendency to suffering as compared 
with the immensity of his works, is quite as small as the 
proportion of cases in which design is un discoverable is to 
those of acknowledged contrivance. So evidently and so 
designedly is the tendency of animal existence in favour of 
enjoyment, that it can only be accounted for by referring it 
to Divine Benevolence. u Contrivance proves design," says 
Paley, 1 u and the predominant tendency of the contrivance 
indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds 
with contrivances ; and all the contrivances which we are 
acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes." 

7. But if this representation be correct, we may expect 
that a Benevolent Being will create as great a number of 
animals as possible, consistently with other claims, in order 

1 Moral Phil. p. 51. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



317 



that the amount of enjoyment may be the greater. And, as 
the same kind of animal could only exist in one condition, 
and yet the conditions of external nature are exceedingly 
diversified, we may expect, for the same reason, that differ- 
ent races will be created for different conditions ; so that the 
means of happiness may be improved to the utmost. And, 
as the amount of animal life might be vastly increased, if 
a portion of the food required could be animated and 
happy till it is wanted as sustenance, we may expect, that, 
if consistent with goodness, life will be thus conditionally 
granted to it. Now all these conditions are found to be 
fulfilled on a most magnificent scale. 

As to the existing numbers of the animal kingdom, more 
than a thousand species of quadrupeds, five thousand 
species of birds, and as many of fishes, are now known to 
naturalists. Of reptiles, the number and variety are 
immense but unknown. " The species of shell-fish or tes- 
tacea, crustaceous animals, worms, radiated animals, and 
zoophytes, which almost cover the bottom of the vast abyss, 
exceed all calculation. The forms of animalcules vary in 
almost every infusion of vegetable or animal matter which 
nature presents." Nine hundred species of intestinal worms 
have already been extracted from the bodies of animals, and 
even some of these worms have parasites within them. And 
of insects, a hundred thousand species are known. But the 
number of species affords but a faint idea of the incal- 
culable myriads of individuals which some of them include. 
Vast flocks of birds sometimes darken the heavens like an 
eclipse. Clouds of life float in the atmosphere. Immense 
tracts of the ocean are often coloured by medusas, or covered 
as with a sheet of fire. Every drop of the ocean, from pole 
to pole, teems with existence. " These all wait upon thee, 
God ; and thou givest them their meat in due season." 



318 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



Nor is any part of the surface of the globe untenanted. 
The tropical desert, and the arctic sea, the stagnant marsh 
and the deep sands of the ocean, the mud and the rocky 
strata, the subterranean cavern and the eternal hills of 
Polar ice, not less than the temperate clime, and the open 
and undulating plain, are full of animal existence. The 
malaria fatal to one race is the necessary condition of life 
to another. Where one species terminates its range of en- 
joyment, another begins. Desolation owns not afoot of the 
globe. 

To increase the amount of happiness still further, not only 
is a large proportion of the food of animals endowed with life ; 
some exist entirely on ova, and on the rapidly multiplied 
embryos of others, thus preventing their injurious increase; 
some on the excreted matters of the skin ; and some, not 
only on, but in others, inhabiting the organs and secretions 
of the interior, to the mutual advantage, probably, of both 
kinds. One of the ends of the Divine arrangement of the 
animal kingdom evidently is, the production of the largest 
amount of life and enjoyment. 

8. But if every element, region, and situation where life 
can exist is to be thus crowded with animated beings, the 
same animal conformation would be so ill adapted for many 
of these external conditions that life and wretchedness would 
mean the same thing. The benevolence of the Creator 
therefore, may be expected to find scope in adapting the 
animal to its condition. Accordingly, these adaptations 
exist ; and so numerous, varied, and minute are they, as to 
defy description. If we take only the law of gravitation, we 
find that to secure them from the dangers of its infraction, 
" the goat, which browses on the edge of precipices, has re- 
ceived a hoof and legs that give precision and firmness to 
its steps ; the bird, destined to sleep on the branches of 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



319 



trees, is provided with a muscle in the leg and foot which 
makes it cling the faster the greater its liability to fall ; the 
fly, which walks and sleeps on perpendicular walls, and the 
ceilings of rooms, has a hollow in its foot, from which it 
expels the air, and the pressure of the atmosphere on the 
outside of the foot holds it fast to the object on which the in- 
side is placed ; the same is true of some kinds of lizards ; 
the walrus is provided with a similar apparatus for climbing 
up the sides of icebergs ; and the broad and spreading hoof 
of the camel fits it for the loose and sandy soil of the torrid 
desert." And still more does the benevolence of this 
arrangement appear, when we remember, that each modifi- 
cation of a part of the animal requires the co-adjustment of 
the entire structure. 

Buffon and others, indeed, have expressed commiseration 
for some species, especially for the tardigrade family, as if 
they were the victims of a defective organization, because 
their motions, as compared with our own, are so remarka- 
bly slow. But our sensations are not the standard by 
which to estimate their coDclition. The rapidity of our 
motions would be death to the sloth. He is made for his 
condition ; nor does he less find security and subsistence in 
it, than the lion ranging the. plain, or the eagle sweeping 
the horizon of a continent. 

As an illustration of the diversity of ways by which the 
Creator adjusts the habits of the animal to its external con- 
dition, u let us imagine a noble forest tree, in whose luxu- 
riant foliage the birds of the air find shelter, and whose 
leaves supply food to hosts of insects. In this respect, the 
tree may be considered a world in itself, filled with dif- 
ferent tribes of inhabitants, differing, not only in their 
aspect, but even in the stations or countries they inhabit, 
and assimilating as little together as the inhabitant3 of Tar- 



320 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



tary do with those of England. . . . Some of the insects, as 
caterpillars, feed upon the leaves ; others upon the flowers ; 
a few will eat nothing but the bark; while many derive 
their nourishment from the internal substance of the trunk. 
... If we examine further, new modifications of habits are 
discovered. Those insects, for instance, which feed upon 
leaves, do not all feed in the same manner, or upon the 
same parts : a few devour only the bud ; others spin the 
terminal leaves together, forming them into a sort of hut, 
under cover of which they regale at leisure, upon the ten- 
derest parts; some, apparently, even more cautious, con- 
struct little compact cases, which cover their body, and 
make them appear like bits of stick, or the ends of broken 
twigs ; some eat the outside of the leaf only — like the cater- 
pillars of New Holland, mentioned by Lewin — bore them- 
selves holes in the stem, into which they carry a few leaves ; 
sally out during the night for a fresh supply, and feed upon 
them at their leisure during the clay. It seems, in fact, im- 
possible to conceive greater modifications than are actually 
met with, even among insects which feed only upon leaves ; 
while other variations are equally numerous in such tribes 
as live upon other portions of the tree. . . . Let us now look 
to those tribes of the feathered creation which would frequent 
this same tree for the purpose of seeking food. The wood- 
peckers begin by ascending the main trunk ; they traverse 
in a spiral direction, and diligently examine the bark as 
they ascend; wherever they discern the least external in- 
dication of that decay produced by the perforating insects, 
they commence a vigorous attack : with repeated strokes of 
their powerful wedge-shaped bill, they soon break away the 
shelter of the internal destroyer, who is either dragged from 
his hole at once, or speared by the barbed tongue of his 
powerful enemy. Next come the creepers and the nuthatches: 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



321 



they have nothing to do with the tribes of insects just 
mentioned • their food is confined to the more exposed in- 
habitants of the bark, the crevices of which they examine 
with the same assiduity, and traverse in the same tortuous 
course, as do the woodpeckers : the one taking what the 
other leaves. In temperate regions, like Europe, few insects 
are found on the horizontal branches of trees ; and this 
seems the true reason why we have no scansorial birds 
which frequent such situations ; but in tropical countries the 
case is different ; and we there find the whole family of 
cuckows exploring such branches, and such only. Finally, 
the extreme ramifications, never visited by any of the fore- 
going birds, are assigned — in this country at least — to the 
different species of titmice, whose diminutive size and facility 
of clinging are so well suited for such situations." 1 

9. If the well-being of the animal depend on its con- 
formity with the laws of its constitution, the benevolence of 
the Creator would be further displayed by associating that 
conformity with sensations of pleasure. And it is so. The 
legitimate exercise of every sense is accompanied with 
pleasure. Activity itself yields gratification. But activity 
so operates as to render rest peculiarly delicious. The 
voluptuousness of repose again is succeeded by a desire for 
exertion, while every appetite, properly indulged, yields 
a measure of enjoyment. And thus " nature resembles the 
law-giver, who, to make his subjects obey, should prefer 
holding out rewards for compliance with his commands, 
rather than denounce punishments for disobedience. , ' 2 

10. But as the constant activity of the vital functions 
is essential to life, would not the Divine benevolence be 
shown in withdrawing their operation from the contin- 

1 Swainson's Discourse on Nat. History, p. 175. 

2 Lord Brougham's Illustrations of Paley's Theology, vol. ii. p. 65. 

Y 



322 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



gencies of animal volition, and in rendering it involuntary 
and independent? It is so. u For the continuance of life 
a thousand provisions are made. If the vital actions of an 
animal's frame were directed by its volition, they are neces- 
sarily so minute and complicated, that they would imme- 
diately fall into confusion. It cannot draw a breath, with- 
out the exercise of sensibilities as well ordered as those of 
the eye or ear. A tracing of nervous cords unites many 
organs in sympathy ; and if any one filament of these were 
broken, pain, and spasm, and suffocation would ensue. The 
action of its heart, and the circulation of its blood, and all 
the vital functions, are governed through means and by laws 
which are not dependent on its volition, and to which its 
mental powers are altogether inadequate. For had they 
been under the influence of its volition, a doubt, a moment's 
pause of irresolution, a neglect of a single action at its 
appointed time, would have terminated its existence." 1 

11. Still, as neither of these arrangements will secure 
for the animal entire exemption from danger, would not 
Benevolence be as apparent in guarding the animal against 
the evil by a warning pain, as in rewarding its obedience 
by pleasure? Now, such an arrangement does exist. The 
senses have been called sentinels placed at the outposts of 
life, to give timely warning of approaching danger. Every 
sense has its own sphere of perception, ranging circle beyond 
circle. Every appetite, if denied the gratification necessary 
to animal well-being, becomes uneasy and importunate. 
While the skin, drawn over the entire surface of the body, 
becomes a robe of sensibility and protection to all the parts 
within. 

This view affords the appropriate reply to the incon- 

1 Very slightly altered, for the sake of adaptation, from Sir C. 
Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 13. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



323 



siderate inquiry, " why is there pain at all? or, why is not 
every action performed at the suggestion of pleasure?" 
For, not only is pain the necessary alternative to pleasure, 
but, if pleasure were to precede the act of obedience, as 
well as to attend, and to follow it, where would be the in- 
ducement to activity? If the animal, while in danger of 
famishing, be happy, what inducement would it have to 
arise and eat? But, according to the existing arrange- 
ment, it is aroused to the necessary activity by a twofold 
stimulus — incipient hunger inciting it from within, and the 
desire of gratification in prospect. 

Besides which, it is often of the utmost importance that 
the notices of the presence of objects should be transmitted 
instantly to the brain; for the slightest delay would be 
attended with serious evil, and might even lead to fatal 
consequences. " Could the windpipe and the interior of 
the lungs be protected by a pleasurable sensation, inducing 
a slow determination of the will — so well as by that rapid 
and powerful influence which the exquisite sensibility of 
the throat produces upon the act of respiration, or by those 
forcible yet regulated exertions which nothing but the in- 
stinctive apprehension of death can excite?" 

12. But while the benevolence of the Creator is thus 
apparent in employing pain as a safeguard against danger, 
most remarkably is it displayed in the manifold contri- 
vances adopted for economizing suffering. We have seen 
this illustrated in the graduated scale of sensibility, and 
the other alleviating arrangements, included in the system 
of prey. When death is the result of age, the power of 
feeling gradually ceases, and the last moments of departing 
life assume the tranquillity of approaching sleep. In the 
case of an injury short of death, the vis medicatrix is called 
into activity, or a power tending to remedy the evil. This 

Y 2 



324 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



is seen in the tear which flows to wash the irritating particle 
from the eye ; and in the new bone and new flesh produced 
to make the parts severed by accident knit again and heal. 

The vast majority of sensations intended to guard against 
evil, are unattended with pain. And even of those which 
may become painful if prolonged, many, at first, are merely 
calculated to excite attention : such is the incipient sensa- 
tion of hunger. 

The sense of danger is generally timed and proportioned 
according to the urgency of the case. Were the sensations 
always equally distressing, the animal would suffer unneces- 
sarily; for the great majority of its dangers are trivial. 
Were they always equally slight, the animal would soon be 
destroyed; for some of its dangers require a sudden and 
strenuous effort, which it would not have a sufficient in- 
ducement to make. "It is provided that the more an 
organ is exposed, or the greater is its delicacy of organiza- 
tion, the more exquisitely contrived is the apparatus for its 
protection, and the more peremptory the call for the activity 
of that mechanism : and as, in such instances, the motive 
to action admits of no thought and no hesitation, the action 
is more instantaneous than the quickest suggestion or im- 
pulse of the will." 1 " The velocity with which the nerves 
subservient to sensation transmit the impressions they re- 
ceive at one extremity, along their whole course, to their 
termination in the brain, exceeds all measurement, and can 
be compared only to that of electricity passing along a 
conducting wire. These nerves may, in fact, be regarded 
as constituting a system of electric telegraphs, established 
by nature as the general medium of instantaneous trans- 
missions of sensorial agencies between all, and even the 
most distant parts, of the body." 2 

1 Sir C. Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 202. 

2 Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 330. 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



325 



Every perception of a different kind of danger has its 
own distinct sensation. This is essential, in order that the 
kind of effort to be made may answer to the nature of the 
evil to be avoided. For if the sensation arising from 
intense heat were the same as that occasioned by intense 
cold, the danger might be increased in the very attempt to 
escape from it. But by thus varying the sensation with 
the danger, an important end is gained in the diminution 
of pain ; for the same painful sensation, however trifling at 
first, becomes by repetition or continuance intolerable. 

But that which strikingly illustrates the Divine benevo- 
lence here is, the law that each part of the body should be 
endowed with a susceptibility to pain from those impressions 
only which tend to injure its structure ; while it is compara- 
tively insensible to every injury to which it is not likely to be 
exposed. " The extreme sensibility of the skin to the slightest 
injury, conveys to every one," says Sir C. Bell, " the notion 
that the deeper the wound the more severe must the pain 
be. This is not the fact; nor would it accord with the 
beneficent design which shines out everywhere. The sen- 
sibility of the skin serves not only to give the sense of 
touch, but to be a guard upon the deeper parts ; and as 
they cannot be reached except through the skin, and pain 
must be suffered therefore before they can be injured, it 
would be superfluous to bestow such sensibility upon these 
deeper parts themselves. If the internal parts, which act 
in the motions of the body, had possessed a similar degree 
and kind of sensibility with the skin, so far from serving 
any useful purpose, it would have been a source of incon- 
venience and continual pain, in the common exercise of the 
frame." On the same principle it is that the nerve of 
touch is insensible to excess of light ; the nerve of vision is 
insensible to touch ; and so are also those important organs, 



326 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



the brain and the heart ; for had they possessed such sensi- 
bility, it would have been useless as a protection, since no 
external injuries could reach them without a previous 
warning having been received through the sensibility of 
the skin. 

What, then, is the kind of sensibility with which these 
various parts are endowed? In every case it is different, 
for it is appropriate to the function of every part. The 
eye may be rudely fingered without inflicting pain; for the 
optic nerve is sensitive only to excess of light — its nerve 
of touch is distinct. The heart may be handled without 
feeling it; but, as the great circulatory organ, it is in the 
closest sympathy with all the vital powers, and keenly alive 
to their slightest variations. The brain is as insensible to 
touch " as the sole of our shoe;" but let it be diseased, and 
consciousness departs. The bones may be exposed and cut 
with impunity ; but the application of a force which tends 
to fracture them will cause exquisite pain. The tendons 
and ligaments which cover them may be exposed, and cut, 
pricked, or even burned, without the animal suffering the 
slightest pain ; but let them be violently stretched, and the 
warning pain is instantly felt. Now by this benevolent 
arrangement pain is reduced to a minimum. The sensi- 
bility of each part varies with the function of the part ; is 
limited to the peculiar liabilities of that part ; and is occu- 
pied in its protection. 

13. But do not these facts intimate the great truth that 
a nerve is not necessarily sensible, but only by the Divine 
appointment? We have already seen that no organization, 
no mechanical hypothesis, no chemical process, will suffice 
to account for life. And here we are brought to the 
analogous conclusion, that the sensibilities of the living 
frame are not qualities necessarily arising from life ; that 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



327 



still less are they the consequences of delicacy of texture ; 
but that they are endowments appropriate to their assigned 
and respective offices. For not only have the different parts 
of the nervous system totally distinct endowments,, there 
are nerves, as we have remarked, " insensible to touch and 
incapable of giving pain, though exquisitely alive to their 
proper office;" and thus showing that, in each instance, 
that office is a special provision for a definite purpose — the 
benevolent purpose of animal enjoyment. 

u We here perceive design^ because we trace adaptation. 
But we, at the same time^ trace Benevolent design, because 
we perceive gratuitous and supererogatory enjoyment be- 
stowed. See the care with which animals of all kinds are 
attended from their birth. The mother's instinct is not 
more certainly the means of securing and providing for her 
young, than her gratification in the act of maternal care is 
great, and is also needless for making her perform that duty. 
The grove is not made vocal during pairing and incubation, 
in order to secure the laying or the hatching of eggs ; for if 
it were still as the grave, or were filled with the most dis- 
cordant croaking, the process would be as well performed*. 
But thus it is that nature adds more gratification than : is 
necessary to induce the creature to obey her calls." 1 

14. And when the complicated and minute provision! 
necessary for this enjoyment is considered, the l^enevolence; 
of the Creator is still further conspicuous. Tha mathe- 
matical structure of the eye alone, on which the pleasures 
of sight depend, and its exquisite adaptation to the physical 
laws of light, might well fill us with astonishment at the 
goodness of God. But this is only one of numberless 
arrangements having the same kind tendency; and when 
we remember that all these are parts of a prospective plan 
1 Lord Brougham's Illustrations, &c, vol. ii, p. 66* 



328 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



contemplated before the birth of the animal; that the 
foundation of the whole is laid in the germ of which its 
after life is only the development; that maternal care 
awaited its coming ; that the season of its birth is adjusted 
to the season of the year, and to the period of the food, 
most conducive to its well-being, our conviction of the 
goodness of God is still more increased. Nor can we 
thoughtfully pause at any moment, and try to bring before 
our minds all the fulness of animal life the world contains, 
and the infinitely varied sounds, and motions, and signs of 
enjoyment which it exhibits, without saying with Paley, " it 
is a happy world after all ;" nor recollect that every sense, of 
every animal, of every herd, and shoal, and swarm, and flock, 
which throng creation, is a gift of Sovereign goodness — a 
channel in which the Divine benevolence may pour forth a 
stream of enjoyment, and behold the reflection of its image, 
without gratefully exclaiming, " How great is His good- 
ness !" And this we conceive to be pre-eminently the de- 
sign of the animal creation — the manifestation of the Divine 
benevolence. 

15. But if the animal possess not the power of appre- 
hending the great End of its creation, it may be expected 
to act from an instinctive regard to that end which is rela- 
tive to the great End, namely, its own happiness. And, as 
it can answer the end of its creation only by, and as long 
as it retains, its relative perfection, we may expect that a 
strong desire will be implanted in its nature, and form a 
part of it, to maintain its well-being. Accordingly, life, 
enjoyment, and offspring, form the objects of all the animal 
instincts. From its own kind, it derives higher happiness 
than from any other objects in creation. In obeying the 
highest and most important instinct of its nature, it de- 
rives the highest pleasure. And in the possession of off- 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



329 



spring, the resources and enjoyments of two distinct beings 
are, in a sense, imparted to each. Even the manner in 
which, in the higher classes of animals, nutriment has been 
provided for the helpless young, evinces the kindest consi- 
deration; for, besides that the nourishment itself is "the 
most perfect type of food in general that it is possible to 
give," the way in which it is imparted is a source of tran- 
quil enjoyment both to the giver and the receiver. Indeed, 
the entire arrangement by whic^Jhe multiplication and per- 
petuation of animal life is secured, appears to carry animal 
enjoyment to the highest point. 

16. But does this great theatre of animal enjoyment 
demonstrate the absolute infinity of the Divine goodness? 
Our reply is similar to that which we have returned to the 
same question in relation to the displays of Divine power 
and wisdom. If it were a proof of goodness, metaphysically 
infinite, all the illustrations of benevolence subsequently 
exhibited in the history of man, and which may be here- 
after displayed in the progress of the universe, would, as 
further evidence, be superfluous or extra-infinite. Analo- 
gous remarks were made in the preceding Parts, relative to 
the power and wisdom of God ; and from the advanced point 
which we have now reached, we can see how erroneous it 
would have been to treat the proof as already completed, or 
to limit our views of those Divine perfections by the evidence 
then before us; inasmuch as that evidence is still in pro- 
cess of augmentation. And in a similar manner, the illus- 
trations of Goodness are constantly receiving fresh accessions, 
To which it is to be added, that even if the objective exer- 
cise of the Divine goodness were literally infinite, it would 
be utterly useless for all the purposes of manifestation, since 
its infinity would remain unknown to us ; except, indeed, on 
Divine testimony. But how should we know that testimony 



330 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



to be true, except on infinite evidence? and so on, ad infi- 
nitum. If we utter any complaint at all, then, relative to 
the limitation of our knowledge of the Divine perfections, we 
should begin with the complaint that our minds are limited ; 
which would be to complain in effect, that they are created, 
and not uncreated. Even as it is, the actual illustrations 
of the goodness of God exceed our conceptions ; and yet, in- 
definite as they are, they^o on multiplying at a rate which 
defies all human computation. 

17. The only way, then, in which an infinite proof of 
infinite goodness can be presented to finite creatures, or be 
received by them, is by a progressive accumulation through 
endless duration ; so that it must be always in the course of 
exhibition. It is easy to conceive, however, of such a dis- 
play of benevolence within a space and a time not unlimited, 
as should furnish free agents, capable of reasoning from 
analogy, with ample evidence of benevolence unlimited. 
And such a display of goodness we believe to have been 
made in the animal creation. Now, in attempting to show 
this, it is to be borne in mind, as a fact universally admitted, 
that the limitations of matter in relation to space, are 
necessitated by the nature of matter itself ; and therefore, 
the limitations of the uses made of it also. If, then, 
the material medium through which benevolence is to be 
displayed is itself inherently conditioned by limits, we have 
to determine what evidence of goodness, exhibited under 
such circumstances, we, as beings constituted to reason by 
inference, and from analogy, should be justified in deeming 
an adequate illustration of goodness unlimited — of the kind 
of goodness, that is, which is displayed in sentient enjoyment. 
Displays of other kinds are, hypothetically, yet in store. 

18. Now, we can conceive of intelligences so superior to 
ourselves as to be able to recognise in the first forms of sen- 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



331 



tient life that appeared on our earth, an adequate proof of the 
unlimited goodness of the Creator. Their view of cause 
and effect might be such as to enable them to say defini- 
tively, and at once, " the Being that could originate these 
forms of happiness, must be distinguished by infinite good- 
ness." For, be it remembered, that the full understanding 
of these primitive forms would include also the full under- 
standing of the inorganic and vegetable worlds ; and would 
evince that the production of these sentient beings had 
always been in the contemplation of the creative mind. 
But these primeval creatures were actually accompanied or 
followed by a world of animal existences. True, those 
early creations were not probably so diversified in their 
species as the later creations; but geology shows that, at 
a very early period, the sea-covered earth swarmed with 
individual life. It would have been useless for man, had 
he then lived, to attempt the individual enumerations of 
beings contained in even a section of " the great and wide 
sea;' 7 and yet every being was a distinct argument for 
the goodness of the Creator, since every one of them all 
was comprehended in his Divine plan. Now surely a 
human spectator of that scene could not have expended 
years and ages in the contemplation of animal enjoyment, 
especially as viewed in connexion with the complicated pro- 
vision made for it from the beginning, and with the end- 
lessly diversified manner in which all nature ministered to 
it, without receiving an overwhelming impression of Creative 
benevolence. Long before he could have fully estimated 
the proofs of benevolence teeming around him, a new 
creation would dawn, and a new world of animate wonders 
come into view ; and as he gradually discovered that phe- 
nomena which at first appeared at variance with goodness, 
only required to be understood in order to become remark- 



332 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



able illustrations of it; that where a liability to pain ex- 
isted, the most refined and complicated means are resorted 
to for reducing it to the smallest amount possible, or for 
providing against it altogether ; and that even the system 
of prey is resolvable into the greatest amount of animal 
enjoyment compatible with the existing plan of creation, 
he could not but feel that the benevolence to which all this 
was owing, must be literally past finding out. Let him 
revisit the earth in imagination time after time, with 
intervals of ages between each visit: surely he could not 
remark that every change of external condition was 
associated with a corresponding change in animal organiza- 
tion; *that these changes were diversified to a degree 
designed apparently to impress him with their inexhausti- 
bleness; that the systems of life and enjoyment were ever 
on the increase, and that the analogy of every part with 
all the rest showed the whole to be in accordance with a 
plan which must have ever existed in the Divine mind, 
without being impelled to the conclusion that for such dis- 
plays of goodness to an indefinite extent, God is all-sufficient. 
And, beyond this, he should remark that the amount of 
actual life exhibited at any given time on the earth, is as 
nothing compared with the amount of potential life and 
happiness which it contains. The vegetable seeds germi- 
nating at this moment on the surface of the earth, are, 
probably, insignificant compared with the number con- 
cealed below to an unknown depth ; and who shall calculate 
the superficial extent of the world, or worlds, which those 
seeds would be sufficient speedily to clothe with verdure? 
And so also of the ova of some animal species, such as the 
carp, the cod, or the flounder, in an individual of which more 
than a million have been counted, — who shall say the 
number of Atlantics which either of these species would 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



333 



fill in the course of a thousand years, if all their ova were 
allowed to be developed; or how many atmospheres, of the 
same extent as that of our planet, would, in the same time, 
become crowded and darkened, by the unchecked multipli- 
cation of so minute a thing as a fly ? Now he could not 
survey the recovered fossil species of former worlds, re- 
membering that all traces of many species have probably 
vanished; and then glance at the five hundred thousand 
species now living, remembering that the actual multipli- 
cation of some of them, prodigious as it is, is as nothing 
compared with their possible increase; and that this has 
been always true from the beginning, without yielding to 
the full impression, that, subjectively, the creative goodness 
can know no limitation; and that, objectively, He is all- 
sufficient for replenishing alike a single planet, or ten 
thousand worlds, with sentient happiness, and for sustaining 
the whole for an age, or for ever. This we believe to be 
the impression which a world of sentient enjoyment was in- 
tended to produce on the mind of man. That it is adapted 
to produce this effect is evident, for it actually produces it. 
And the very manner in which this end is attained — the 
mental effort which it demands, and the apparent moral 
difficulties which it involves — still farther evinces the far- 
reaching purpose of the Creator, in making it the means of 
man's intellectual and moral education. But man, " the 
interpreter of nature," is yet to come. 



19. Now, suppose a being capable of appreciating the 
successive stages of creation as we have endeavoured to 
describe it, to have taken a survey of the whole on the eve 



334 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



of that great revolution which gave occasion to the Adamic 
creation, what an enlarged view must it have afforded him 
of the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God ! Could 
he have cast back a mental glance to the remote antiquity 
when the first creative fiat went forth, and then have called 
before his mind all the long series of creation on creation 
with extended intervals between, which had since then 
taken place, — could he have remembered how many vege- 
table kingdoms had successively existed and perished, only 
to be followed by others better adapted to the altered globe ; 
and how every such change had been followed by a corre- 
sponding adaptation in all the indefinite varieties of animal 
life, so that the earth had been kept " full of His goodness," 
without feeling, with a depth of conviction no language 
can express, and long before he had arrived at the close of 
his retrospection, the all-sufficiency of God for the indefinite 
enlargement and continuance of similar manifestations! 
He would have seen that, here, every object and event 
formed at least a letter in the great name of God — a symbol 
of the Divine perfections. Even if the creative process 
had been arrested at this point, never to be resumed, he 
would yet have felt that he was worshipping in a temple 
dedicated to "the eternal power and Godhead;" for the 
shekinah of the Divine presence was everywhere visible. 
But that temple had ever been enlarging and receiving 
fresh memorials of the Deity; and long before he had 
deciphered every symbol, and bowed at every altar sacred 
to these perfections, he would have felt prepared for the 
unveiling of another aspect of the Divine character. 

20. Could he then have had disclosed to him the nature 
of man's constitution, — physical, mental, and moral, — the 
creation would forthwith have seemed to assume a new 
character. He would have seen that man was not to be 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



335 



made for the world, but that the world from the first had 
been made for man ; that all its laws were mute predictions 
of what he would be ; that all nature was pre-configured to 
him, and looked forwards to his coming. The earth, then, 
he might have said, is to be a school for the education of 
the human being. What a severe and useful discipline 
will it be for him, if left to his own unaided efforts, to 
determine the point from which his physical studies should 
start, the method they should observe, and the direction 
they should take. When the time shall come for him to 
try to ascertain the position of his planet in the system to 
which it belongs, and the disposition of the parts of that 
system, what prolonged and improving efforts is it likely to 
call forth? for he will see it " not in plan but in section ;" 
his point of observation will lie in the general plane of the 
system, while the notion he will aim to form of it will be, 
not that of its section, but of its plan ; as if he should 
attempt to make out the countries on a map, with his eye 
on a level with the map, 1 Even the size and physical 
geography of the planet itself are relative to the powers of 
the being destined to occupy it; for, while it is not so 
diminutive and unvaried as to promise no reward to 
curiosity and effort, neither is it so vast and unmanageable 
as to depress and forbid them. For him, the Creator has 
" weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a 
balance." Here, objects are so formed as to call him to 
activity, and to give him lessons in self-government ; and 
secrets so hid in the depths of nature as to invite his dis- 
covery, and to correct his pre-judgments; and events so 
intimately and universally related, as to reveal to his 
attentive eye the fact, that all nature is united in a close 
net-work of mutual connexions and dependence. Here, 
» Sir J. Herschell's Nat. Phil., p. 267. 



336 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



advancing from the domain of facts, he will ascend to the 
region of laws. His discovery and generalization of these 
will constitute his natural science, his practical application 
of them will be his art and occupation. From this com- 
manding point, all creation will assume the appearance of 
order, and be seen under law. And every onward step in 
this direction will bring him, by a path increasingly lumi- 
nous, nearer to the throne of the Eternal, in whose hand 
all laws will be seen to meet. 

21. The being who is supposed to be intelligently antici- 
pating the creation of man, would foresee that the earth 
was designed also to be a temple for worship. Here — he 
might have said farther — wherever man may look, he will 
find himself surrounded by the symbols of the Godhead. 
Every object on which his eye will rest, is either an " altar 
of memorial," or an offering to be laid on it. Even the 
earth itself, as it goes speeding through space, what should 
it be but an altar, at which he should be perpetually 
ministering, as the high-priest of nature? 

Here, if he ask for proofs of the power, and wisdom, and 
goodness of God, he may ascend, by higher and higher 
generalizations, from phenomenal causes to the Great First 
Cause Himself ; and from the contemplation of the unin- 
terrupted order, the symmetry of relations, and the har- 
monious combination of laws observable throughout organic 
nature, to the conviction of universal design in the Creating 
Cause; and from the perception that all this exercise of 
wisdom is directed to the multiplication and happiness of a 
world of sentient life, to the conclusion that the Creator is as 
benevolent as He is powerful and wise. 

But geology will give a range to his views of the Divine 
all-sufficiency beyond all admeasurement ; it will admit 
him to a succession of departed worlds, stored with the 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



337 



monuments of the Creator's inexhaustible resources. Plunge 
as far back as he may into the past, he will still find him- 
self in the province of the same Creator, and surrounded 
by evidences that " He seeth the end from the beginning." 

But what impressive views of the same perfections will 
open on him when he shall come to perceive, that all the 
long series of creations by which the globe is adapted to 
become his habitation, has distinctly contemplated his own 
well-being! Were his advent among the creatures to be 
that of a distinguished being from some paradise above, 
means for developing his hidden powers, the exquisite 
adjustment of things to strike him with the kind fore- 
thought of the Being who had sent him here, provision for 
his health, and comfort, and entire well-being during his 
stay, could hardly have been made more obvious and abun- 
dant than they actually are. Of all the species of animated 
beings that have inhabited the earth, he will be the first to 
look upon nature with an intelligent eye. Till he comes, 
this glorious volume of the Creator will remain unread; 
and not only will he be able to interpret nature, it will be 
his prerogative to employ it for his improvement. The 
only use which the brute creation unconsciously make of it, 
is that of sustaining and perpetuating their kind. He will 
employ it also for the same purpose, but this very employ- 
ment of it may be of a nature to call forth the exercise of 
his reason, and to tend to his intellectual progress. So 
that even in that one solitary respect, in which he and the 
animals will appear to be placed on a level, he will be able 
in reality to assert his essential superiority over them ; and 
from it he may date his actual rise above them. They 
only use and only need some of the present products of the 
earth. Man may employ the products of every departed 
world. In his hands the extremes of geological duration 

I 



338 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



may meet. The granite of ten thousand ages back may be 
made the foundation of his dwelling, or the pedestal of his 
image. The mountain limestone — petrified exuviae of de- 
parted worlds — may serve to cement and beautify his abode. 
The wreck of the forests, that for ages waved on the sur- 
face of the ancient lands, and the ferruginous accumulations 
deposited in primeval waters may supply him with the 
principal means of his material progress and comfort. From 
the rich metallic veins which interlace the earth, he may 
derive the means of his choicest ornaments, the representa- 
tives of all his material wealth, and knowledge " more 
precious than rubies." Every flood which swept over the 
ancient continents, and every dislocating earthquake, which 
contributed to the formation of cultivable soils, may re-appear 
in man's science, and be converted to his purposes. The 
loadstone, in his hands, may become an instrument by which 
to call the stars to his aid, and to bid defiance to the apparent 
boundlessness of the ocean, while, in quest of scope for his 
enterprise, he steers to a distant region of the globe. The 
subterranean treasuries of the earth contain nothing which 
he will not be able to use ; and who shall say but that the 
time may come in his history when its stores will prove to 
have been not unnecessarily great? Surely the creature 
who will point to little artificial contrivances of his own in 
proof of his sagacity and skill, will not fail to recognise in 
these vast prospective arrangements for his coming, con- 
vincing indications of a beneficent superintending mind! 
And surely as time advances, and new and more profound 
adaptations of nature rise to view, as man comes to find 
that his race have been living for ages in the midst of com- 
plicated adaptations of which they were unconscious, and 
which could be developed only as the result of a long series 
of prior discoveries, but all tending to his development and 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



339 



well-being, his recognition of the Creative wisdom and 
goodness will become more vivid and grateful, and the 
earth become more sacred in his eyes ! 

Probably, too — the supposed soliloquist might have con- 
tinued — probably, as preceding changes of the earth have 
been followed by new and enlarged creations of animal life, 
the period of man's creation may be marked by some new 
productions of the Divine power, designed to contribute yet 
farther to human welfare. But, whether it should be so or 
not, the earth, even as it is, appears to be so replete with 
preparations for his coming, that He alone could perceive 
any deficiency, whose unlimited power is able to supply it. 
It is only in such a world that a creature like man could 
live, and his character be developed. Here, every part of 
his nature will find its appropriate domain. The phe- 
nomena of geology alone — what lessons will they read to his 
intellectual and moral nature? Can he recognise in the 
series of organic worlds, distinct evidence of a succession of 
creations, without feeling as if he were reading so many 
proclamations of the Divine power laid up for his perusal? 
feeling it with a vividness which could hardly be increased 
even if he could reach the foundation of the earth and 
there find the inscription, " Laid by the Divine Hand, to 
be discovered and deciphered by man unnumbered ages 
hence." When he shall perceive that these successive 
creations are only the gradual filling up of a vast and har- 
monious outline, will he not be penetrated with wonder at 
the comprehensiveness of the Divine plans, and the un- 
changeableness of the Divine nature ? Can he ever attempt 
a computation of the enormous periods which must have 
elapsed since life first moved on the globe, without being 
carried back in imagination to a past eternity ; and with- 
out thinking, by the mere rebound of the mind, of an eter- 

z 2 



340 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



nity yet to come? And, then, will it be possible for him to 
mark how all the stupendous miracles of the past have con- 
spired to prepare the earth to receive him, without feeling 
that the adaptation must have been contemplated from the 
first, and without surrendering himself up to the emotions 
of adoration and joy? 

And shall these geological records of the past furnish 
him with no ground of conclusion, or of rational conjecture, 
respecting the future ? He will be able to point to an era 
when his race had not yet begun to exist. An age after, 
and man had been called into being, and had entered on his 
career. Every one of his posterity, therefore, traced back 
to his origin through the preceding generations of mankind, 
will carry about in his own person indubitable evidence of 
a miracle. And may he not justly reason that, unless the 
Supreme Power can be supposed to have exhausted itself in 
his own creation, the energy which could perform the long 
succession of stupendous miracles of which the production 
of the first man was the crowning act, must be capable of 
performing other miraculous acts? And unless he should 
suppose that he himself has been created without any 
object, or that God has excluded Himself from his own 
world, and has bound Himself in the iron chain of an ever- 
lasting mechanism, will it not be natural for him to infer 
that the object for which the miracle of his own creation 
was wrought may subsequently require the performance of 
other miracles in harmony with the primary one, and lead- 
ing to the same result? And unless it could be shown that 
no beneficent provision whatever had been originally made 
for human happiness, the existence of such provision will 
surely warrant the conclusion that, if ever circumstances 
should arise in which it would be more for the well-being 
of man to modify or to enlarge that provision than not to 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



341 



do so, it would — all other things being equal — be worthy 
of Divine Goodness so to modify or enlarge it. And will 
not the persuasion that he stands in the midst of a system 
yet in progress — a system, therefore, from which God is 
never absent — tend to invest the earth with the hallowed 
character of a temple, and to convert his every inquiry 
respecting the past and the future into an act of worship? 

22. But what if this same being who had been given to 
understand that the earth would be a school for man's 
education, and a temple for his worship, had been foretold 
also that it would be the sphere of human probation; that 
even its natural scenery and productions would, in a sense, 
be conveyed into the mind of man, and be taken up into 
his character; that every object and event in nature 
would, in a variety of ways, be wrought into the texture 
of man's moral history ; and that every law expressed, and 
every truth symbolized, in nature, would sooner or later be- 
come a test of character, what a field for solemn conjecture 
would have been opened before him ! Perversions of these 
truths which have become familiar to us, would doubtless 
have appeared to him so gross as to be next to impossible. 
Whatever errors man may imbibe, we may suppose him to 
have said — it is not to be imagined that he will ever so far 
discredit his reason as to mistake those created exponents 
of certain attributes of the Divine Nature for that Infinite 
Nature itself; converting the intended means of worship 
into objects of adoration. Man's moral freedom, if nothing 
else, seems to require that the period of the earth's origin 
should be hid in a dateless antiquity; but surely he will 
not therefore irrationally jump to the conclusion that it is 
eternal and uncreated. For the same reason, it would seem 
to be necessary that the successive stages of the creative 
process should not be so obtrusively marked and palpable 



342 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



as to compel the judgment to the right conclusion ; but can 
it be that all other evidence except that of visible creative 
interference shall go for nothing with a being meant to 
reason ; or that advantage will ever be taken of the absence 
of mere visible evidence, to affirm the non-existence of an 
invisible Agent? Whatever may be meant by the uni- 
formity of the course of nature, it is evident that it must 
be something compatible with a succession of changes in 
which new races have been brought into being, differing 
from all previous existences. Contrary, therefore, as such 
a creative change may be to the course of nature for a 
certain period, evidently, it is by no means contrary to the 
great scheme to which that limited period belongs. And 
confidently as the permanence of nature may be relied on 
during a given period, with equal confidence may a change 
be looked for, sooner or later, to put an end to that period. 
The changes may be as regular on a large scale of things, 
as is the intervening uniformity on a smaller scale. Both 
are only parts of a great whole. It cannot be that man, 
who will actually owe his existence to one of these miracu- 
lous changes, should ever come to question their possibility ; 
that, arguing from his own uniform experience of a few 
ages, he should feel himself warranted to pronounce against 
such changes during the vast preceding cycles compared 
with which his ages will be as moments ; and that he should 
do this in the face of all the successive worlds of geological 
evidence to the contrary. The Divine Creator is the " God 
of order;" regularity is the natural characteristic of His 
procedure ; without it, man will not be able to arrive at 
any knowledge respecting Him : and can it be that man 
will take occasion from the very order of nature to " ex- 
plode the idea of a God?" shall those sequences, without 
which he will not be able to infer the Creative Existence, 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



343 



be the very reason why he denies it? shall the very laws 
whose existence are essential in order that he may under- 
stand anything of the Lawgiver, become, in his hands, 
weapons for dethroning Him? 

If it shall appear from the event that one of the great 
reasons of the Creator for adopting the actual method of 
creation, was that it might be preconfigured to man's in- 
telligent, voluntary, and moral nature, can it be that any 
human creature will ever come to construe the infinitely 
complicated coincidence of the two into a proof of its 
accidental origin — as if the proof of design diminished in 
proportion as the evidence increased. If man's free-agency 
is not to be overborne by the visible display of immediate 
Divine operation ; if the evidence of creative agency is to 
be enough to convince, but not so much as to overwhelm, 
the attainment of this balance will involve relations and 
adjustments of infinitely diversified complication, and will 
form, in truth, the grand sphere for the exercise of creative 
wisdom and goodness; surely no human being will ever 
employ this freedom in questioning the existence of the 
agency which alone makes it possible ! Without it, there 
would be no reasoning— no man ; with it, shall there be, for 
him, no God? 

If the ultimate end both of the creative method and of 
its reason in respect to man, be the unfolding of the Divine 
all-sufficiency, can it be that he will ever derive two directly 
opposite conclusions from the same creative displays? that 
he will at one time contend, that as his inferences can only 
go to the extent of his evidence, his views of the Divine 
perfections, derived from natural theology, are necessarily 
limited ; and, at another, that the Being who could originate 
the universe must be too exalted to interest himself in any 
of its mere details? Is it possible that, on a survey of 



344 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



creation, one man should withhold from the Creator the 
homage involved in the recognition of His infinity; and 
that another, on the ground of His infinite greatness, should 
u compliment Him out of this world as a place too mean 
for His reception," and excuse Him from its government, 
as a care and an incumbrance unsuitecl to His dignity ; 
and from its worship, as a thing beneath His regard? 

Thoughts such as these — had there been a being to 
entertain them — might well have projected a deep shadow 
over the earth as the scene of man's approaching probation. 
But may we not suppose that the gloom would have been 
relieved and brightened by anticipations of a very opposite 
tendency? Here, the imaginary seer might have said, as 
he recalled the past and glanced over the present — here is 
a great system of argumentative appeals, for the infinite 
power, and wisdom, and goodness of God, appeals which predict 
a constitution fitted to receive and respond to them. More 
than one part of that constitution will be constructed to re- 
spond. Often, the response will be so sudden as to anticipate 
the slow conclusions of the reasoning process; so clear and 
distinct as to be heard by the most unwilling ear; and so 
authoritative and impressive as to be remembered and felt 
long after every opposing voice has ceased. .Rightly con- 
sidered, creation will be regarded as a hymn of praise to 
its Maker ; and man will aspire to lead the song. While 
from the depths of the earth — from the wreck of former 
worlds — he will derive materials with which to erect an 
altar of gratitude to Him who " reneweth the face of the 
earth." And what even if man's moral relations to the 
Deity should be disturbed, and his condition should con- 
sequently become such as to require information which it is 
not in the power of nature to impart ; even then — though 
some of his race, alas ! owing partly to the very scantiness 



SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 



345 



of their natural knowledge of God, and in proportion to it, 
may blindly profess to be satisfied and to desire no more, — 
yet the natural theology of others will, in proportion to its 
extent and fulness, tend to awaken a thirst for a higher and 
more enlarged revelation of the Divine character, and pre- 
pare them to expect it. Insufficient as the knowledge of 
God derivable from nature may be as a sanctuary for 
conscious guilt, it may yet serve as the substructions and 
steps of another temple, from the sacred recesses of which 
may be caused to issue the oracles of Holiness, Mercy, and 
Love. And as the vastness of the Divine resources dis- 
played in nature, joined with the consideration that, in- 
definite as they must be to man, they are after all finite to 
God, is the reflection which, more than any other, will im- 
press him with the all-sufficiency of God in creation, so it 
may inspire him with the hope of the Divine all-sufficiency 
for his moral recovery, and be even employed by God to 
image that sufficiency forth. 

23. A being placed, and informed respecting the past 
and the future, as we have supposed, could not have 
recognised the signs of approaching change — if such signs 
there were — symptoms of the impending revolution of a 
portion, at least, of the earth's surface ; and then have re- 
called before his mind the succession of new creations, which 
had followed from like revolutions before, without rising to 
adoration, and saying, in effect, " Of old hast thou laid the 
foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of 
thy hands : they shall perish, but thou remainest ; yea, they 
all shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou , 
roll them up, and they shall be changed : but thou art the 
same, and thy years shall have no end." And as he 
stood on the verge of the crisis, with the ominous shadows 
of the last evening settling around him, and all nature 



346 



THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. 



hushed in portentous silence, he could not picture to his 
mind the possibilities involved in the impending stage of 
the Divine procedure, without being conscious of an earnest 
desire to behold the creature, man, and the wondrous scenes 
which would signalize his eventful history. 



NOTE 

REFERRED TO AT PAGE 83. 1 



" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
Now the earth was without form and waste, and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters." — Genesis i. I, 2. 

From a careful consideration of the subject, it is the full con- 
viction of the writer, that the first of the two verses just quoted 
was placed by the hand of Inspiration at the opening of the Bible 
as a distinct and independent sentence; that it was the Divine 
intention to affirm by it, that the material universe was primarily 
originated by God from elements not previously existing ; and that 
this originating act was quite distinct from the acts included in the 
six natural days of the Adamic creation. 2 It should be observed 
that this interpretation by no means implies that Moses himself 
put this construction on the sentence, or intended to convey this 
meaning. He might; or he might not. He was only the organ 
for its transmission. But it is a well-known canon of Scripture 
interpretation, that the statements of the word of God are to be 
understood, not merely in that sense in which they were appre- 
hended by the human instruments employed to make them, nor in 
that sense to which their hearers or readers at the time could 
reach, but in the sense which He himself attached to them. For 
example, there is ground to believe that Moses himself was not 
aware of the profound spiritual meaning of much of the ritual 
which he was employed to institute. It was an obscure text, which 
awaited the Divine commentary of the Christian dispensation. 

Nor is it meant to be implied by this interpretation that the 
Bible was designed to teach astronomy, geology, or any other 
branch of natural science. When we are enlarging on the 
historical parts of Scripture, for instance, no one infers that we 
mean to affirm that the Bible was designed to teach either the 

1 This Criticism has already appeared as an article in the " Biblical Review." 

2 See Dr. J. P. Smith's admirable work on Scripture and Geology. Lecture VI. 
Part II., and Notes P. Q. Second Edition. 



348 



NOTE. 



mere facts, or the philosophy, of history. Its object, in such parts, 
is to teach the doctrine of God's government of the world; and all 
that we are supposed to mean is, that the events related in proof or 
illustration of the doctrine, were matters of fact, actual occurrences, 
divinely attested. So here; the obvious purpose of the inspired 
writer is to teach the great truth that God is the Creator of all 
things; and all that the nature of the case requires — and this it 
does seem to require — is, that, however anthropomorphic and 
popular the language employed may be, the events related in illus- 
tration of the truth should be actual occurrences. But being such, 
it follows that they will be found in harmony with the facts of 
science. The view just propounded, and which appears to the 
writer to be the only just construction of the verse in question, 
involves the following three propositions; that, by " the heavens 
and the earth," ar^here to be understood the material universe; 
that the original act of creation was the calling of the material of 
the universe into existence; and that this act was not included in 
the six days of the Adamic creation. 

The first of these propositions — that by " the heavens and the 
earth," are here to be understood the material universe — hardly 
admits of a question. Even if the phrase, " the heavens and the 
earth," does notinclude more than the material universe — (namely, 
dependent sentient and intelligent beings also) — it cannot be re- 
garded as denoting less. In proof of which, if proof be necessary, 
it may be alleged, that the material universe is the subject imme- 
diately taken up in the verses following; that the phrase in question 
became a Hebrew formula for expressing the material universe, a 
formula most likely adopted from this opening verse ; and that 
such appears to be the inspired exposition of the phrase — as in 
Psalm cii. 25, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the founda- 
tion of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands." 

The second proposition — that the original act of creation was the 
calling of matter into existence — though not, at first sight equally 
obvious, appears, on examination, to be equally certain. There are 
those, indeed, who, while they firmly believe that matter is not 
eternal, refuse to admit that this verse affirms its origination. 
Their persuasion is, that the verse takes us back only to the 
beginning of the Adamic creation, and affirms that God was the 
immediate former of the present state of things; and that the 
verses following unfold the process of the formation. And the 
chief reason which they assign for this view is, that bar a — created, 
according to the usus loquendi, signifies, not to call a thing out of 
non-existence, but to re-constitute something already in existence; 
and is used indifferently and interchangeably in many passages 



NOTE. 



349 



with asah — made, and y at sar— formed or fashioned; and that there 
does not appear to be any word in any language which expresses 
the idea of creation independently of pre-existing matter. 

In reply, I would submit that this objection, even if it could be 
substantiated, does not meet the requirements of the case ; and that 
the only appropriate evidence is that which is derivable from the 
interpretations of the phrase, and of the subject, as found in other 
parts of Scripture. For, first, from the very nature of the subject, 
the usus loquendi never can obtain in relation to any word em- 
ployed to express creation out of nothing. And the apparent sin- 
gularity of the fact might have well awakened inquiry how it is that, 
while every language has the idea, no language has a term ex- 
clusively employed to express it, but adopts a phrase instead. 1 
The obvious reason is, that even if a term — bara, for example — 
had been at first devised and employed to express the Divine 
origination of matter, man, according to a well-known and uni- 
versal tendency, would soon have adopted it as the most emphatic 
mode of expressing his own secondary origination, or mere 
formation, of things. And then as, in its primary signification, 
it could only, in the nature of things, be applied to a single act 
of the Divine Being, while in its secondary sense it could be 
applied to all kinds of human origination of all kinds of things, 
the usus loquendi would speedily place the secondary meaning 
first. Let it be imagined that a new term were to be now devised 
to express the idea in question — let it be the term ^nihilate — 
and immediately man would adopt it to express his own production 
of things, just as he now speaks of annihilating them; though 
he can do either only in a secondary sense. And as, in this 
secondary sense, he would be daily exnihilating, while the term, 
in its primary signification, could be predicated only of the one 
originating act of the Divine Being, of course the usus loquendi 
would immediately obtain in favour of the secondary sense. 
Now, admitting the term bara to have meant, when employed in 
the first verse of Genesis, the actual creation of matter, its 

1 When Dr. Pusey, Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, states, (Buckland's " Bridge- 
water Treatise," note, p. 22,) that "our very addition of the words ' out of nothing,' 
shows that the word creation has not, in itself," the force of absolute origination, he 
appears to overlook the only point in the discussion worth remembering, namely, 
that this additional phrase is properly employed only when something is supposed 
already to exist, out of which the thing made might possibly be produced. On the 
other hand, when speaking of the origination of primordial elements, no one could 
say that they were created out of nothing without tautology ; for this would be to 
state formally that the first has no antecedent, or that the first is not second. So 
that the word creation, when predicated of primordial matter — and this is the pre- 
cise thing in question — does possess, without any additional words, the force of 
absolute origination. 



350 



NOTE. 



secondary application would soon have acquired, in this manner, 
the sanction of custom ; and then, as inspired language did not 
differ from ordinary language, the term would subsequently come 
to be used, in Scripture, interchangeably with asah — made, and 
yatsar — -formed. Our only resource, therefore, is to ascertain 
the scriptural interpretation of the term in those passages in 
which the first verse of Genesis was present to the mind of 
the inspired writers. Or if, secondly, the verb bara was taken 
by inspiration from a prior and familiar application to a human 
process, and was employed metaphorically to denote a Divine 
act of an analogous but unique description, then also, as the 
thought would govern the word, and not the word the thought, 
we should have to look for that thought in other parts of the in- 
spired volume. 

Now, that the first verse of Genesis is to be regarded as an- 
nouncing the proper creation of the matter of the visible universe, 
is apparent from the following passages: — 

1. A comparison of the second and following verses in Gen. i. 
with the first verse, justifies the conclusion that the act denoted 
by bara in the first verse must have been essentially different 
from mere formation out of materials already existing; for after 
that first act had been performed, the earth still remained in a 
formless chaotic state. On this point, I avail myself of the 
critical judgment of Professor M. Stuart, of America; and I do 
so the more readily, because he is avowedly an anti-geologist, 
and is therefore free from all suspicion of a bias from that 
quarter. " All order and arrangement plainly seem to be con- 
sidered, by the writer of Gen. i. as having been effected after the 
original act of creation. * * * The original act of creation, as 
understood by the sacred writers, appears plainly to have been, 
the calling of matter into being, the causing of it to exist ; and 
out of this the heavens and the earth were afterwards formed, 
i. e., reduced to their present order and arrangement." 1 

2. In the opening verses of St. John's Gospel we read, "In 
the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and 
the Logos was God. * * * All things were made by him." 
Here, it is evident that the design of the sacred writer is to affirm 
that, before anything existed ad extra, the Logos existed; for his 
object is to prove that everything was brought into existence by 
the Logos. If Scripture, then, is to be its own interpreter, we 
must infer that the phrase, in the beginni?ig, as employed in the 
book of Genesis, takes us back to the same period. And this 
conclusion becomes inevitable when we observe that, in using 

1 Hebrew Chrestomathy, p. 112. 



NOTE. 



351 



this phrase, the Gospel designedly, and for obvious reasons, 
imitates the history. If the Mosaic use of the phrase, therefore, 
does not take us back to a period prior to the origination of 
matter, it cannot be justly inferred that the apostolic sense of the 
phrase does ; but that the " all things made by him," excepts 
matter, *. <?., that matter was not made by him, and that he did 
not exist before it. 

3. In harmony with the view for which we are contending, 
and apparently conclusive of it, is Heb. xi. 3, " By faith we 
understand that the worlds were formed by the word of God, so 
that the things which are seen, were not made from those which 
do appear." It cannot be justly questioned that the Divine 
declaration, by faith in which we attain to this conviction, is 
that contained in Gen. i. 1, for the apostle next refers to Gen. 
iv. 4, and next to Gen. v. 24 ; and so on, in orderly succession, 
Now, the apostolic exposition of that declaration is, "that the 
worlds were formed by the word of God" — by the commanding 
word 1 — " the symbol of the Almighty and self-competent power, 
which requires no means exterior to itself." 2 And, still further 
to evolve and expound the idea of absolute origination, it is 
added, " so that the things which are seen, were not made from 
things which do appear;" 3 or, which amounts to the same, "the 
things visible were made from things not visible;" 4 i. e., not 
from anything pre-existing; they were strictly originated by the 
creative fiat. Had the apostle meant merely that the visible 
creation was formed from a pre-existing invisible matter, he 
surely would not have made it a doctrine of faith. This is rather 
a doctrine of sense, in antagonism to faith; and, as such, it has 
been always acceptable to a sensuous philosophy. 

Indeed, it does not appear that any other meaning was ever 
attached to the Mosaic statement, by the ancient church, than 
that given by the apostle. " God made them [heaven and earth] 
from things that do not exist," 5 i. e., from nothing previously 

1 Psalm xxxiii. 6 ; cxlviii. 5. 

2 Tholuck on the Hebrews, in loc. 

3 Et£ to firj sic (paivojxkvwv rd (3\eTr6[j,eva ytyovkvai. 

4 Mj) ^aivofxevojv being here equivalent to ovtojv, for, as God alone existed 
to see*or to know, if there was nothing visible to Him, there was nothing. Just as 
in Hebrew, nimtsa — that which is found, is a term employed to denote that which 
exists ; and, with the negative particle, to denote the not-found, meaning the non- 
existent. See Bloomfield, in loc; Stuart; Storr and Flatt, § xxxi. ; Knapp's Theo- 
logy, § xlvi. note ; the translations of Sacy, Osterwald, Luther, Diodati, and the 
English versions of 1557 and 1611. 

5 Ovk t£ ovTbiv sTTointrev avrd 6 0e6c. 2 Mace. vii. 28. The Vulgate, ex nihilo 
fecit Deus cozlum et terrain. 



352 



NOTE. 



existing. According to the Kabbins, 1 the verse should be rendered, 
" God, in the beginning, created the substance of the heavens, 
and the substance of the earth." The Syriac translator under- 
stood the verse in the same sense. 2 It is clear, says Chrysostoin, 
in his paraphrase of the apostolic interpretation, " that God, 
from things not in being, made those which are in being; from 
those not visible, the things which do appear; and. from things 
having no subsistence, those things which subsist." But if such 
is the apostolic exposition of Gen. i. 1, it follows that the same 
exposition must be received as the inspired interpretation of the 
whole of that class of parallel passages in the Old Testament, 
of which that verse stands at the head. 

The third proposition is, that this absolute origination of 
matter was a Divine act not included in the six days of the 
Adamic creation. The question, here, does not respect the 
length of the interval between that originating act and the 
Adamic creation. The proposition sinrply affirms that there 
was an interval; and implies, that the inspired text neither 
asserts its brevity nor denies its length. Its duration is supposed 
to be indicated in indelible characters elsewhere — in the crust of 
the globe itself. The scriptural record is simply, but significantly, 
indicative of an interval. 

The principal objection to this view is derived from Exod. xx. 
11, wherein, as the reason for observing the Sabbath, the entire 
and complete work of creation is supposed to be described as 
carried on and ended in six days. To which it should be suffi- 
cient to reply, that so much of the creative process is there 
referred to — and only so much — as related to the law of the 
Sabbath, namely, the six days of the Adamic creation; or the 
making of the heaven and the earth as described in Gen. i. 3, &c. 
But, secondly, the same rule which leads one objector to rely on 
Exod. xx. 11, as a rjroof that the entire creation was conrprised 
in six Adamic days, would justify another in insisting that it was 
comprised in one day, because it is said, Gen*, ii. 4, " These are 
the generations of the heavens and the earth, in their being- 
created, in the day of Jehovah God's making earth and heavens:'' 
the obvious meaning of the original being, however, at the time 

1 Who understand eth, here, to denote the substance or material. Compare Gese- 
nius, sub voce ; Aben Ezra; Kimchi, in his Book of Roots; and Buxtorf's Tal- 
nmdic Lexicon. 

2 In Walton's Polyglott, the Syriac is very properly translated, esse coeli et esse 
terra? — the being or substance of the heaven, and the being or substance of the 
earth. 



NOTE. 



353 



of their creation, or after they were created. And, thirdly, it is 
a violation of an essential rule of sound interpretation to infer 
the meaning of an author from a condensed sentence, introduced 
incidentally, instead of deriving it from his more direct, con- 
nected, and ample statements on the same subject. Now, the 
full and formal treatment of creation occupies the whole of the 
first chapter of Genesis. To affirm, without proof, that the 
verse in Exodus condenses the whole of the chapter, is to beg 
the very question at issue. That the chapter includes all that 
the verse relates to, I admit. But it includes more. It affirms, 
for example, in the second verse, the significant fact that there 
was a j)eriod when " the earth was without form and void : " 
respecting this the verse in Exodus is silent; while, in the 
first verse, the chapter affirms that at some period prior to that 
state of chaos — in the beginning — God originated the material 
of the universe. And the question is, whether, according to the 
critical and correct rendering of the text, that period was not 
prior to the six days of the Adamic creation. 

When it is objected to this priority, that the decision of the 
question might be safely left to any unbiassed mind on a perusal 
of the English version of the text, the objector is evidently cal- 
culating on the effect likely to be produced on the " unbiassed 
mind" by the mere juxtaposition of the opening verses, and 
by the conjunctive meaning, and, given to the Hebrew particle 
vau, which commences the second verse. This, however, is an 
appeal, not to his knowledge, but to his ignorance. It is to 
take advantage, not of his judgment, but of his prejudice. 
For unless, by an act of marvellous intuition, he could infer 
the Hebrew original from the English rendering, he may, for 
aught he knows to the contrary, be pronouncing on the mean- 
ing of a faulty translation. So that the question to be first 
decided, relates to the correct rendering of the original. If, 
for example, according to the learned and judicious Dathe, 
that rendering shtuld be, " In the beginning, God created 
the heaven and the earth. But afterwards the earth became 
waste and desolate," — an unbiassed mind, in that case, could 
arrive only at the conclusion that a period was spoken of p>rior 
to the six natural days described in the verses following. 

Now such appears to be the true sense of the original. The 
connecting particle at the beginning of the second verse leaves 
the question of time entirely open. It does not rule the sentence; 
the sentence rales it, and determines what its particular shade of 
meaning was intended to be. Even in our English version, it 
is often translated by other conjunctions: thus, in the very next 

A A 



354 



NOTE. 



chapter, verse 17, it is rendered but. Sometimes, it begins whole 
books. At other times, as in Numb. xx. 1, it spans a wide 
chronological interval. Indeed, as the general connective par- 
ticle of the Hebrew language, it is employed as copulative, con- 
tinuative, adversative, disjunctive, and for other purposes; 1 the 
specific purpose, in every case, being determinable by a con- 
sideration of the context alone. 

To an examination of the text, then, let the question be 
referred. Now, that the originating act, described in the first 
verse, was not meant to be included in the account of the six 
Adamic days, is evident from the following considerations : First, 
the creation of the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days, 
begins with the formula, And God said ; it is only natural, there- 
fore, to conclude that the creation of the first day begins with 
the third verse, where the same formula is employed, " And God 
said, Let there be light." But if so, it follows that the act 
described in the first verse, and the state of the earth spoken of 
in the second, must have both belonged to a period anterior to 
the first day. Secondly, the only adequate reason assignable 
for the account given in the second verse is, to prepare the 
reader for the description which follows of the six days' work. 
For it both intimates the necessity for such work, by aifirming 
the chaotic condition of the earth ; and describes the Spirit of 
God as hovering over the chaos, preparatory to it. Not only 
the originating act in the first verse, therefore, but also the 
commencement of the energizing process in the second, appears 
to have preceded the opening fiat of creation on the first day, 
and to have been introductory to it. Thirdly, if it be admitted 
that the regular unfolding of the six days' work begins at the 
third verse, it follows that the origination of the earth, in the 
first verse, was anterior to and independent of it; for no such 
an act is again adverted to in the subsequent verses. On the 
whole, then, my firm persuasion is, that the first verse of Genesis 
was designed, by the Divine Spirit, to announce the absolute 
origination of the material universe by the Almighty Creator; 
and that it is so understood in other parts of Holy Writ: that, 
passing by an indefinite interval, the second verse describes the 
state of our planet immediately prior to the Adamic creation; 
and that the third verse begins the account of the six days' 
work. 

1 Gesenius, sub voce. The lexicographer refers to the particle in Gen. i. 2, as an 
instance of its coniinuative force merely — i. e., as employed for the simple purpose of 
connecting one part of a subject with the next which followed it in the order of the 
writer's design, without any reference to the length of intervening time. 



NOTE. 



355 



If I am reminded that I am in danger of being biassed in 
favour of these conclusions by the hope of harmonizing Scripture 
with geology, I might venture to suggest, in reply, that the 
danger is not all on one side. Instances of adherence to 
traditional interpretations, chiefly because they are traditional 
and popular, though in the face of all evidence of their faulti- 
ness, are by no means so rare as to render warning unnecessary. 
The danger of confounding the infallibility of our own inter- 
pretation with the infallibility of the sacred text, is not peculiar 
to a party. 

If, again, I am reminded, in a tone of animadversion, that I 
am making science, in this instance, the interpreter of Scripture, 
my reply is, that I am simply making the works of God illustrate 
his word, in a department in which they speak with a distinct 
and authoritative voice ; that " it is all the same whether our 
geological or theological investigations have been prior, if we 
have not forced the one into accordance with the other;" 1 and 
that it might be deserving consideration, whether or not the 
conduct of those is not open to just animadversion, who first 
undertake to pronounce on the meaning of a passage of Scrip- 
ture irrespective of all the appropriate evidence, and who then, 
when that evidence is explored and produced, insist on their 
a priori interpretation as the only true one. 

But in making these remarks, I have been conceding too 
much. The views which I have exhibited are not of yesterday. 
It is " important and interesting to observe, how the early 
fathers of the Christian church should seem to have entertained 
precisely similar views; for St. Gregory Nazianzen, after St. 
Justin Martyr, supposes an indefinite period between the creation 
and the first ordering of all things. St. Basil, St. Csesarius, and 
Origen, are much more explicit." 2 To these might be added 
Augustine, Theodoret, Episcopius, and others, whose remarks 
imply the existence of a considerable interval " between the 
creation related in the first verse of Genesis, and that of which 
an account is given in the third and following verses." 3 In 
modern times, but long before geology became a science, the 
independent character of the opening sentence of Genesis was 
affirmed by such judicious and learned men as Calvin, Bishop 
Patrick, and Dr. David Jennings. 4 And " in some old editions 

1 Dr. S. Davidson's Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 672. 

2 Principal Wiseman's Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed 
Religion, vol. i. p. 297. 

3 The Note in Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, by Dr. Pusey, wbo refers to 
Petavius, lib. c cap. 11, § i. — viii. 

4 Dr. J. Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, pp. 179, 180. 

A A 2 



356 



NOTE. 



of the English Bible, where there is no division into verses, 
you actually find a break at the end of what is now the second 
verse; and in Luther's Bible (Wittenberg, 1557) you have in 
addition the figure 1 placed against the third verse, as being 
the beginning of the account of the creation on the first day." 
Now these views were formed independently of all geological 
considerations. In the entire absence of evidence from this 
quarter — probably even in opposition to it, as some would 
think — these conclusions were arrived at on biblical grounds 
alone. Geology only illustrates and confirms them. The works 
of God prove to be one with this preconceived meaning of his 
word. And there is ground to expect that this early interpreta- 
tion will gradually come to be universally accepted as the only 
correct one. 



Note II., referring to pages 194 and 294. 

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE THEORY OF SUCCESSIVE CREATIONS. 

This note is taken, partly, from an abstract of a communica- 
tion to the British Association, in 1845, by Professor E. Forbes, 
" On the distribution of Endemic Plants, more especially those 
of the British Islands, considered with regard to Geological 
Changes;" and partly from his essay " On the Connexion between 
the Distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British 
Isles, and the Geological Changes which have affected their area, 
especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift," in the 
" Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, &c." The 
object of its insertion here is to illustrate the doctrine of suc- 
cessive creations. 

" In the following remarks on the history of the indigenous 
Fauna and Flora of the British Islands and the neighbouring 
sea," writes Professor Forbes, " I take for granted the existence 
of specific centres — i. e., of certain geographical j)oints from 
which the individuals of each species have been diffused. This, 
indeed, must be taken for granted, if the idea of species (as 
most naturalists hold) involves the idea of the relationship of all 
the individuals composing it, and their consequent descent from 
a single progenitor, or from two, according as the sexes might 
be united or distinct. 

"That this view is true, the following facts go far to prove. 
First: Species of opposite hemispheres placed under similar 
conditions are representative, and not identical. Secondly: Species 



NOTE. 



357 



occupying similar conditions in geological formations far apart, 
and which conditions are not met with in the intermediate for- 
mations, are representative and not identical. Thirdly: Where- 
ever a given assemblage of conditions, to which, and to which 
only, certain species are adapted, are continuous — whether geo- 
graphically or geologically — identical species range throughout. 

" I offer no comments on these three great facts, which I present 
for the consideration of the few naturalists who doubt the doc- 
trine of specific centres. The general and traditional belief of 
mankind has connected the idea of descent with that of distinct 
kinds, or species, of creatures; and the abandonment of this 
doctrine would place in a very dubious position all the evidence 
the palaeontologist could offer to the geologist towards the com- 
parison and identification of strata, and the determination of the 
epoch of their formation. 

" Moreover, it is notorious that the doctrine of more than one 
point of origin for a single species, and consequently, more than 
one primogenitor for the individuals of it, sprang out of ap- 
parent anomalies and difficulties in distribution, such as those 
which I am about to show can be reasonably accounted for, 
without having recourse to such a supposition." 

The hypothesis of the descent of all the individuals of a 
species either from a first pair or from a first individual, and the 
consequent theory of specific centres, being assumed, the isola- 
tion of assemblages of individuals from those centres and the 
existence of endemic or very local plants, remain to be accounted 
for. Natural transport, the agency of the sea, rivers, and winds, 
and carriage by animals, or through the agency of man, are 
means, in the majority of cases, insufficient. It is usual to say 
that the presence of many plants is determined by soil or climate, 
as the case may be ; but if such plants be found in areas dis- 
connected from their centres by considerable intervals, some 
other cause than the mere influence of soil or climate must be 
sought to account for their presence. This cause the author 
proposes to seek in an ancient connexion of the outposts or 
isolated areas with the original centres, and the subsequent 
isolation of the former through geological changes and events, 
especially those dependent on the elevation and depression of 
land. Selecting the flora of the British Isles for a first illustra- 
tration of this view, Professor Forbes calls attention to the fact, 
well known to botanists, of certain species of flowering plants 
being found indigenous in portions of that area at a great dis- 
tance from the nearest assemblage of individuals of the same 
species in countries beyond it. Thus many plants peculiar in 



358 



NOTE. 



the British flora to the west of Ireland have the nearest portion 
of their specific centres in the north-west of Spain ; others, con- 
fined with us to the south-west promontory of England, are, 
beyond our shores, found in the Channel Isles and the opposite 
coast of France ; the vegetation of the south-east of England is 
that of the opposite part of the Continent; and the Alpine 
vegetation of Wales and the Scottish Highlands is intimately 
related to that of the Norwegian Alps. The great mass of the 
British flora has its most intimate relations with that of western 
Germany. The vegetation of the British Islands may be said 
to be composed of five floras : — 1st, a west Pyrenean, confined 
to the west of Ireland, and mostly to the mountains of that 
district; 2nd, a flora related to that of the south-west of 
France, extending from the Channel Isles, across Devon and 
Cornwall, to the south-east and part of the south-west of Ire- 
land ; 3rd, a flora common to the north of France and south- 
east of England, and especially developed in the chalk districts; 
4th, an Alpine flora, developed in the mountains of Wales, 
north of England, and Scotland ; and, 5th, a Germanic flora, 
extending over the greater part of Great Britain and Ireland, 
mingling with the other floras, and diminishing, though slightly, 
as we proceed westwards, indicating its easterly origin and rela- 
tion to the characteristic flora of northern and western Germany. 
Interspersed among the members of the last-named flora are a 
very few specific centres, peculiar to the British Isles. The 
author numbers these floras according to magnitude as to 
species, and also, in his opinion, according to their relative age 
and periods of introduction into the area of the British Islands. 
His conclusions on this point are the following : — 

" 1. The oldest of the floras now composing the vegetation of 
the British Isles is that of the mountains of the west of Ireland. 
Though an Alpine flora, it is southernmost in character, and 
quite distinct as a system from the floras of the Scottish and 
Welsh Alps. Its very southern character, its limitation, and its 
extreme isolation, are evidences of its antiquity, pointing to a 
period when a great mountain barrier extended across the mouth 
of the Bay of Biscay from Spain to Ireland. 

" 2. The distribution of the second flora, next in point of pro- 
bable date, depended on the extension of a barrier, the traces of 
which still remain, from the west of France to the south-west of 
Britain, and thence to Ireland. 

" 3. The distribution of the third flora depended on the con- 
nexion of the coasts of France and England towards the eastern 
part of the Channel. Of the former existence of this union no 
geologist doubts. 



NOTE. 



359 



" 4. The distribution of the fourth, or Alpine flora of Scotland 
and Wales, was effected during the glacial period, when the 
mountain summits of Britain were low islands, or members of 
chains of islands, extending to the area of Norway through a 
glacial sea, and clothed with an arctic vegetation, which, in the 
gradual upheaval of the land, and consequent change of climate, 
became limited to the summits of the new-formed and still 
existing mountains. 

" 5. The distribution of the fifth, or Germanic flora, depended 
on the upheaval of the bed of the glacial sea, and the consequent 
connexion of Ireland and England, and of England with Ger- 
many, by great plains, the fragments of which still exist, and 
upon which lived the great elk, and other quadrupeds now 
extinct. 

" The breaking up, or submergence, of the first barrier led to 
the destruction of the second ; that of the second to that of the 
third ; but the well-marked epoch of the Germanic flora indicates 
the subsequent formation of the Straits of Dover and of the Irish 
Sea, as now existing. 

" To determine the probable geological epoch of the first, or 
west Irish flora, a fragment, perhaps, with that of north-western 
Spain, of the vegetation of the true Atlantic, we must seek 
among fossil plants for a starting-point in time. This we get in 
the flora of the London clay, or eocene, which is tropical in cha- 
racter, and far anterior to the oldest of the existing floras. The 
geographical relations of the miocene sea, indicated by the fos- 
sils of the coralline crag, give an after-date certainly to the 
second and third of the above floras, if not to the first. The 
epoch of the red or middle crag was probably coeval with the 
in-coming of the second flora ; that of the mammaliferous crag 
with the third. The date of the fourth is too evident to be 
questioned ; and the author regards the glacial region in which 
it flourished as a local climate, of which no true traces, so far as 
animal life is concerned, exist southwards of the second and third 
barriers. This was the newer pliocene epoch. The period of 
the fifth flora was that of the post-tertiary, when the present 
aspect of things was organized." 

In his masterly essay, the Professor has shown that the pecu- 
liar distribution of the endemic animals, especially of the terres- 
trial mollusca, bears him out in these views. And among the 
chief conclusions which he derives from the facts and arguments 
there adduced, the first is, that " the flora and fauna, terrestrial 
and marine, of the British islands and seas, have originated, so 



360 



NOTE. 



far as that area is concerned, since the miocene epoch." And 
the second, that " the assemblages of animals and plants com- 
posing that fauna and flora, did not appear in the area they now 
inhabit simultaneously, but at several distinct points of time." 
These distinct periods, beginning some time after the miocene 
epoch and ending with that of the post- tertiary, are indicated above. 
And the evidence of the in-coming of each assemblage of plants 
and animals, in the order and at the time specified, is to be 
found in the fossil records which the earth contains, and which 
the essay clearly exhibits. It hardly need be added, that the 
same course of investigation is as applicable to the entire globe 
as to the area in question, and to the relations of the ancient 
epochs of geology one with another, as of the present with the 
geological past. 



INDEX. 



Abundance, of vegetable life, 205, 215 ; 
of animal, 305, 317, 318, 332. 

Action and reaction in the vegetable 
kingdom, 183. 

Activity, law of, stated, 60 ; illustrated 
from inorganic nature, 98, 102 ; 
from organic life, 176; from sen- 
tient existence, 251. 

Adaptations to pre -existing laws, 213; 
animal, 318. 

Affinity, 181. 

Agassiz, on transmutation of species, 
275, 287; on the number of fossil 
fishes, 304. 

All-sufficiency of God, 10 ; of creative 
power, 138, 144, 154; of creative 
wisdom, 204, 207, 216, 219 ; of 
creative goodness, 302, 306 ; mani- 
festation of, progressive, 10; unend- 
ing, 12 ; all-comprehending, 14. 

Analogy, 65 ; law of, stated, ib. ; il- 
lustrated from inorganic nature, 
112; from organic life, 188 ; from 
sentient existence, 272. 

Analogies of nature to moral truth, 
113. 

Anaximander, his opinion of the cre- 
ating cause, 16. 

Animal kingdom, organically continu- 
ous, in what sense, 245, 262, Note ; 
geological continuity of, 246 ; four- 
fold division of, ib. ; physiological 
continuity of, 250 ; organization, 
plan of, 250, 314 ; numbers of, 317 ; 
means of its enjoyment improved 
to the utmost, ib. 

Animal and organic life, distinguished, 
230, 246 ; earliest forms of, not the 
lowest order, 248 ; variety and suc- 



cession of, 247, 303, 332 ; fecundity, 
305 ; universality, 317, 318, 332. 

Antiquity of the earth, 70. 

Appointment, primary, and ever-pre- 
sent agency, in creation, 120. 

Argument a posteriori, its dependence 
on a priori beliefs, 150 ; limited to 
mechanical causes and effects, 150, 
152; overlooks the origination of 
matter, ib. 

Aristotle, his principle of animal clas- 
sification, 308. 

Assimilation, distinctive of life, 165. 

Astronomy, its limits, 82. 

Attributes, Divine, not separable, 69, 
86, 156. 

Augustine on " the beginning," 24. 

Bacon, on final causes, 170. 

Bell, Sir C, on the relations of animal 
organization, 258 ; organic provi- 
sions for animal well-being, 322, 
324 ; on the sensibility of the skin, 
325. 

Berzelius, on crystallization, 89. 
Bichat, on physiology, 168; on the 

twofold nature of the animal s vstem, 

230, 296. 
Botanical plan, 174, 181, 188, 218. 

progress, 174, 176. 

Boyle, on the pervading agency of 

God in nature, 128. 
Brougham, Lord, on instinct, 238 ; 

on the benevolence of the Creator, 

321, 327. 

Buckland, Rev. Dr., on the botanical 
plan, 174 ; on the gradual conformity 
of animals to existing types, 249 ; 
on transmutation of species, 277. 



362 



INDEX. 



Cambrian system, 76. 
Carboniferous system, 74. 
Causation, the idea of, how derived, 70. 
Cause confounded with law, 121 ; 

with condition, 193, 294, 301 ; the 

first, differing in nature from second 

causes, 150, 151. 

final, 167, 170. 

Cavanilles, on vegetable growth, 177. 

Chalk formation, 73. 

Change, law of, stated, 66 ; illustrated 

from inorganic nature, 132, 140 ; 

from organic life, 201, 207 ; from 

sentient existence, 300, 306 ; ground 

for expecting it, 133, 201, 300; 

conditions of, 134, 202, 204, 301 ; 

time of, not capricious, 134, 201,202 

301. 

Clark, Dr. W., on foetal development, 
280, 281, 293. 

Classes of plants, the same from the 
first, 160. 

Classification of inorganic substances, 
principles of, 114, 116; of the ve- 
getable kingdom, 181, 190, 192; 
of the animal kingdom, 287, 290. 

Coleridge, on animal rationality, 240 ; 
on the progress of creation, 254. 

Concurrence, constant, of the Divine 
Will, in creation, 121. 

Condition, not to be confounded with 
cause, 193, 294, 301. 

Constitution of plants, independent, 
194; of animals, 291, 293. 

Contingent truth, law of, stated, 57 ; 
illustrated from inorganic nature, 
116, 118; from organic life, 192, 
196; from sentient existence, 290, 
295. 

Continuity, law of, stated, 59 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 94, 
98; from organic life, 172, 176; 
from sentient existence, 245, 251 ; 
its unwarranted application, 94 ; 
not to be rejected for its misap- 
plication, 95 

Contrivances, prospective, 212, 278, 
311, 327. 

Cousin, M., his opinion of the creating 

cause, 17. 
Created excellence originally in God, 

7, 18. 

Creation, cannot supersede the Di- 
vine right, 6 ; a voluntary act, 16 ; 



the well-being of, coincident with 
the Divine glory, 20, 21 ; by 
natural law, not free from moral 
objections, 121, 123,128; its li- 
mitation, inherent in matter, 153, 
216; an all-related system, 258, 
259 ; primary act of, 348 ; crea- 
tion proper, scriptural view of, 348, 
352. 

Creature, none for an eternity, 5. 

Cumbrian formation, 76. 

Cuvier, on final causes in organization, 
167 ; on life, 171 ; its activity, 177 ; 
organic continuity, 246 ; transmu- 
tation, 286. 

Daubeny, Dr., on the rudimentary 
parts of plants, 190. 

Davidson, Dr. S., words and works of 
God, mutually illustrative, 355. 

Davy, Sir H., on the electric state of 
the earth, 99. 

Death, animal, a part of the system 
of nature, 222, 226 ; objections 
answered, 224 ; involved in the 
greatest amount of animal enjoy- 
ment, 225 ; natural, preceded by 
the cessation of sensibility, 227. 

Decandolle, on the habits of plants, 
195. 

De la Beche, Sir Henry T., on trans- 
mutation, 286. 

Descartes, his error in reasoning only 
a priori, viii. ; on animal rationality, 
237. 

Design, when inferrible, 70, 142; 
twofold evidence of, 193, 290, 
292. 

Development, law of, stated, 62; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 103; 
from organic life, 178, 180; from 
sentient existence, 253, 256. 

Development, natural, anthropomor- 
phizing views of, 122, 127 ; reason 
assigned for, inconsistent, 194. 

Distances of the heavenly bodies, 146. 

Earth, its antiquity, 70 ; its magni- 
tude, 144; not eternal, 78; primi- 
tive activity of, 101 ; proximately 
made for man, 335 ; a school for 
his education, ib. ; a temple for his 
worship, 336 ; the scene of his pro- 
bation, 341. 



INDEX. 



363 



Earth's crust, ideal section of, 72. 

Edinburgh Review, on Cousin's philo- 
sophy, 17. 

Effect, an infinite, in space, not pos- 
sible, 11 ; the first objective, 85. 

Ehrenberg, on microscopic animal- 
cules, 145, 284, 285. 

Embryotic hypothesis, unfounded, 
260, 278, 283. 

End of creation, the ultimate, 18, 19. 

End, more than one, designed in crea- 
tion, 19 ; proximate ends concur 
with the ultimate, 271 ; ultimate, 
law of, stated, 51 ; illustrated from 
inorganic nature, 143, 155 ; from 
organic life, 210, 219; from sen- 
tient existence, 310, 333. 

Enjoyment, the existing scheme of 
animal life secures the greatest 
amount of, 227. 

Eocene, meaning of, 248. 

Evidence of a Creator, measured, 141 ; 
of power and wisdom, from organic 
and inorganic nature, different, 1 70, 
171, 193 ; kind and degree of, 
adapted to man's designed consti- 
tution, 207, 210, 309, 335, 345 ; 
increased, 211, 311, 315. 

Excitability, a property of organic 
life, 179. 

Final causes, 167, 170 ; assumed by 
those who profess to dispense with 
them, 168 ; not to be admitted into 
mechanical inquiries, 170. 

First Cause, differing in nature from 
second causes, 150, 151. 

Fletcher, on fcetal development, 281. 

Foetal development, 280, 283. 

Forbes, Professor E., on the connexion 
between the fauna and flora of the 
British isles, and the geological 
changes which have affected this 
area, 356. 

Forchhammer, 162, 175. 

Fossil flora of tertiary strata, 175, 
356; fauna' of, 247, 248; flora of 
secondary strata, 175 ; fauna of, 
247 ; flora of primary formation, 
174 ; fauna of, 246 ; variety of, 303, 
332. 

Fossil plants, number of species, 173. 
Fownes, on organic combinations, 179. 
Fundamental relation, 22. 



Generation, spontaneous, 283, 287. 
Genesis, i., 1, 83, 348. 
Geoffrey St. Hilaire, on final causes, 
168. 

Geological evidence of the earth's an- 
tiquity, objections answered, 83. 

Geology and miracle, 339, 343. 

God, his own end, 1, 5, 10 ; eternity 
of, 1 ; necessary existence, 2 ; ab- 
solute perfection ib. ; onliness, 3 ; 
plurality in unity, ib. ; self-suffi- 
ciency, 3, 9 ; unchangeableness, 5 ; 
to be his own end, an antecedent, 
eternal right, 6 ; his ultimate pur- 
pose in creation, 10; his all-suffi- 
ciency, ib. ; manifestation of, not 
verbal merely, 28. 

Goodness, creative, 222 ; pain con- 
sistent with, ib. ; economized, 223, 
226, 322, 326; prey, system of, 
222, 224; all-sufficient, 302, 306, 
316, 333; display of, why not 
absolutely infinite, 306, 329, 330 ; 
power and wisdom, subservient to, 
315 ; infinity of, inferrible, 329 ; 
unlimited, in relation to time, 330. 

Goppert, on the number of species of 
fossil plants, 173. 

Great reason, 1 . 

" Heavens and earth," meaning of, 

348. 
Heb. xi., 3. 

Henslow, Rev. Professor, on the ac- 
tivity of vegetable life, 177; exci- 
tability, 179. 

Herschel, Sir John, on law as predi- 
cated of inanimate nature, 91 ; on 
the relations of the planetary sys- 
tem, 103 ; on star-clusters, 146 ; 
on causation, 150. 

Hooker, on the stability of nature, 268. 

Humboldt, Alexander, on volcanic 
activity, 99, 100; on the distances 
of heavenly bodies, 147 ; on the 
abundance of vegetable life, 205. 

Hypothesis, the legitimate use of, 1 1 1 ; 
of an atom proving an infinite 
being, 11; nebular, 81, 86, 96; 
embryotic, unfounded, 260. 

Idea of causation, how derived, 70. 
Ideal physical perfection suggested, 
111; botanical, 188; animal, 271. 



364 



INDEX. 



Ideal section of the earth's crust, 72. 

Influence, law of, stated, 63 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 106; 
from organic life, 183; from sen- 
tient existence, 262. 

Inorganic nature, 68. 

Instinctive mind, 231, 243 ; why diffi- 
cult to explain, 231, 235 ; sensa- 
tion, a property of, 231 ; perception, 
232 ; muscular contraction, 232 ; 
volition, 233 ; its proximate end, 
234 ; vital, ib. ; adaptive, 234, 237 ; 
mental, 235 ; advocates of animal 
rationality prove too much, 236, 
238 ; incapable of transmitting 
knowledge, 238 ; of barter, 239 ; of 
speech, ib. ; what intervenes be- 
tween its perceptions and volitions, 
241 ; its memory and associations, 

241 ; unconscious of its own ends, 

242 ; why without speech, 243. 
Instincts of the same species perma- 
nent, 266. 

Jenyns, on the arrangement of Infu- 
soria, 285. 
John, the Gospel of, i. 1—3, 23, 350. 

Kant, on organization, 166. 
Knowledge, instinctive, not trans- 
missible, 238. 

Lamarck, on organic continuity, 246 ; 
on transmutation of species, 274 ; 
on the internal sentiment, 296. 

Laplace, his nebular hypothesis, 81 ; 
on chance, 93, 114, 117; on the 
stability of the heavens, 107, 112. 

Law, meaning of, as applied to nature, 
91, 108, 109. 

Law of resemblance, stated, 50; of 
the end, 51 ; of relation, 52 ; of obli- 
gation, 53; of well-being, 54; of 
necessary truth, 56 ; of contingent 
truth, 57 ; of ultimate facts, 58 ; of 
progression, ib. ; of continuity, 59 ; 
of the past carried forwards, 60 ; of 
activity, ib. ; of development, 62 ; of 
order, 63 ; of influence, ib. ; of sub- 
ordination, 64 ; of uniformity, ib. ; 
of analogy, 65 ; of change, 66 ; of 
the method, 67. 

Laws deduced and stated, 50. 

Lawrence, on the mystery of sensa- 
tion, 296. 



Liebig, on the influence of natural 
science on mental improvement, 
207 ; on organic activity, 251 ; on 
organic continuity, 262 ; on chemi- 
cal forces and vital powers, 270. 

Liebnitz, on continuity, 94 ; on the 
calculable nature of the universe, 
114. 

Life, organic, 165 ; assimilation, a 
distinction of, 165 ; propagation, 
166; excitability, 179; freedom of 
life, 186; organization, a condition 
of, not its cause, ib. ; not necessi- 
tated by its physical conditions, 
195 ; known only by its manifesta- 
tions, 1 97 ; explained by physio- 
logy, in what sense, 198; its rela- 
tions to creation and providence, 
199; distinguished from animal, 
230, 246 ; always continued on the 
earth, 249; superiority of animal 
to vegetable, 253 ; embryotic, first 
trace of, 261, 265. 

Limestone beds, 74. 

Limitation of creation, inherent in 
matter, 153, 216. 

Limits of astronomical science, 82. 

Lindley, Dr., on the decomposition of 
plants, 161 ; on botanical relations, 
174. 

" Logos," considered philologically, 
25 ; historically, 26 ; exegetically, 
27. 

Lusus naturae, accounted for, 252. 

Lyell, C, Esq., on geological grada- 
tion, 98 ; on the permanence of 
instincts in the same species, 266 ; 
transmutation, 286. 

Macculloch, John, M. D., on geolo- 
gical gradation, 97 ; on the incon- 
sistency of not recognising a De- 
signing Cause, 210. 

Man, his voluntary nature consulted, 
141,207—210,307—310; a medi- 
tation on his coming, 333 ; his well- 
being provided for, 3*37. 

Manifestation of Godj not verbal 
merely, 28. 

Matter, creation of, a display of 
power, but not exclusively, 85, 144; 
inorganic, its constitution, 90; its 
undecompounded forms, ib. ; its 
properties, ib. ; its laws, ib. ; its 



INDEX. 



365 



combinations, 91 ; relations of, to 
space and to time, distinction be- 
tween, 129 ; proportion of, to space, 
147 ; origination of, not included 
in the six days of the Adamic crea- 
tion, 352—354. 

Means and ends, distinguished from 
causes and effects, 168. 

Mediatorial, the constitution of the 
universe, 22. 

Method, law of the, stated, 67 ; illus- 
trated, from inorganic nature, 140 
— 143; from organic life, 207— 210; 
from sentient existence, 306 — 310. 

Mill, J. S., on the legitimate use of 
hypotheses, iii. ; on laws of nature, 
108 ; on their supposed explanation, 
122 ; on ultimate laws, 297. 

Miiller, on the primitive trace, 261. 

Murchison, Sir R. S., on fossil plants, 
173 ; on increase of species, 249. 

Natural Theology, 336, 341 ; con- 
nexion with revealed, 344. 

Nature, inorganic, 68; distinguished 
from organic, 180. 

Nature, laws of, 91, 108, 109 ; com- 
patible with numerical increase, 
108 ; with perturbations, 108, 257 ; 
and with certain changes in its con- 
stitution, 109 ; regularity of, often 
confounded with explanation, 121 ; 
anticipated art, 312. 

Nebular hypothesis, its design, 31 ; 
claims, 81, 86, 96. 

Necessary truth, law of, stated, 56 ; 
illustrated from inorganic nature, 
130; from organic life, 200; from 
sentient existence, 299 ; time and 
space, necessary conditions, 130, 
131 ; power, both cause and condi- 
tion, 131. 

Necessary development, an assump- 
tion, 202, 295, 300. 

Nerves, each class of, specific, 293, 
325—327; benevolent arrangement 
of, 324; sensibility of each nerve 
varies with its function, 325 ; not 
necessarily sensitive, 293, 326. 

Newton, on the perturbations of the 
planetary system, 107 ; on the 
divine agency in nature, 121 ; on 
the relation of physical science to 
the first cause, 150. 



Nichol, Prof., on planetary changes, 
96. 

Obligation, the primary, 29 ; moral, 
30; varies with the relation, ib. ; 
mediatorial, ib. ; Scripture assumes 
it, 33 ; reason of, 34 — 38 ; essential 
to the Divine manifestation, 39 ; un- 
ending, ib. 

Obligation, law of, stated, 53 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 109 ; 
from organic life, 189 ; from sen- 
tient existence, 267 — 269. 

Old red sandstone, 7 4. 

Oolitic formation, 73. 

Order, law of, stated, 63 ; illustrated 
from inorganic nature, 105 ; from 
organic life, 182; from sentient 
existence, 260—262. 

Order of the manifestation, 68. 

Organic life, a display of wisdom, but 
not exclusively, 159 ; laws of, es- 
sential to man's interests, 207 ; dis- 
tinguished from animal, 230, 246. 

Organs, perfect from the first, 276 ; 
no one animal organ universal, 293. 

Organization, 166; a condition of life 
not its cause, 186. 

Owen, Professor, on the orders of fossil 
reptiles, 247 ; on the transmutation 
of species, 287. 

Pain, compatible with creative good- 
ness, 222 — 227; its warning na- 
ture, 322 ; contrivances for econo- 
mizing it, 323. 

Paley's definition of instinct, 235 ; all 
nature pervaded by the same cha- 
racteristics, 259, 266 ; on the pre- 
ponderance of animal enjoyment, 
316. 

Past, brought forwards, law of, stated, 
60 ; illustrated from inorganic na- 
ture, 88 ; from organic life, 161 — 
165 ; from sentient existence, 228. 

Perfections, divine, not separable, 69, 
86, 156. 

Phillips, Professor, on the earliest fos- 
sil forms of life, 161 ; life and its 
conditions, 195 ; its uninterrupted 
maintenance, 249, 303 ; adaptation 
of the globe to man, 309. 

Plan, botanical, 174,181, 188,218; 
animal, 250, 272 ; all related, 314. 



366 



INDEX. 



Planetary system, magnitude of, 145. 
Powell, Rev. Professor, on the evidence 

of power and wisdom compared, 

170. 

Power, fundamental to every other 
attribute, 69. 

creation of matter, a display 

of, but not exclusively, 86, 144 ; 
creative, unlimited in relation to 
time, 153, 216 ; evidence of, in- 
creased, 211. 

Power, creative, the display of, not 
absolutely infinite, 136, 144, 150 ; 
all-sufficient, 138, 144, 154; a dis- 
play of, unlimited, requires time 
unlimited, 144 ; interpositions di- 
rect, 194, 195, 294, 295 ; increased 
display of, 310. 

Preliminary Treatise of the library of 
useful knowledge on creative ar- 
rangements, 312, 314. 

Primary formation, 75 ; fossil flora of, 
174 ; fauna of, 246. 

Primary obligation, 29. 

Primitive trace of embryonic life, 
264. 

Progressive, display of divine all- 
sufficiency, 10. 

Progression, law of, stated, 58 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 89 — 
94; from organic life, 165 — 172; 
from sentient existence, 229 — 243. 

Propagation, distinctive of life, 166. 

Prospective contrivances, 212, 278, 
311,327. 

Prout, on the molecular constitution 
of matter, 117. 

Proximate principles of life, not imi- 
table, 197. 

Purpose, the ultimate, 10. 

Pusey, Rev. Dr., on Gen. i. 1. 

Reason, the great, 1. 

Recency of man's creation, 84. 

Relation, the fundamental, 22 ; me- 
diatorial, 23 ; preceded creation, 
ib. ; subservient to the display of the 
Divine all- sufficiency, 25 ; reason 
of, 33 — 38; will never terminate, 
39. 

Relations, law of, stated, 52 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 103 — 
105 ; from organic life, 180—182 ; 
from sentient existence, 256 — 260 ; 



relations of matter, co -existent, 103 ; 
successively existent, 104 ; to God, * 
105; of resemblance, 112; of or- 
ganic life, external, 180, 189; in- 
ternal, 181 ; of the animal, external, 
and co-existent, 256 ; internal and 
successive, 257. 

Resemblance, law of, stated, 50 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 85, 
87; from organic life, 159—161; 
from sentient existence, 222, 227. 

Resisting medium, 80. 

Revelation and natural science, 347. 

Right, the supreme, 40 ; of the Medi- 
ator to the agency of the Holy 
Spirit, 40; to the service of the 
creature, 41 ; to all its legitimate 
increase, 42 ; to the satisfaction 
arising from the accomplishment of 
His creative designs, 43 ; from 
beholding the progress of His pro- 
vidential scheme, 44 ; the effects of 
His interposition for man's recovery, 
47 ; from the homage of the reco- 
vered, ib. ; from being the object of 
infinite complacency, ib. ; from the 
attainment of the ultimate end, 48. 

Roget, P. Mark, M.D., on the part of 
the foetus first perfected, 261 ; on 
the nervous arrangements, 324. 

Rudimental organs, 190, 273. 

Schmidt, on life, 166. 

Science versus atheism, 78, 91. 

Secondary strata, 73; fossil flora of, 
175 ; fossil, fauna of, 247. 

Sedgwick, Rev. Prof., on the succes- 
sion of fossil species, 248. 

Sensation, a property of animal mind, 
231 ; known only by its manifes- 
tations, 296 ; physiological expla- 
nations presuppose it, 296 — 299 ; 
its relation to Creation and Provi- 
dence, 297. 

Sensibility to pain involved in sensi- 
bility to pleasure, 226 ; of each 
class of nerves specific, 293, 325, 
327. 

Silurian system, 75. 

Smith, Dr. J. P., on John, i. 1—3, 

25, 347, 355. 
Species, increase of, 249. 
Spontaneous generation, 283 — 287. 
Stewart, D., on the pervading nature 



INDEX. 



367 



of the Divine agency, 125 ; on the | 
regularity *of physical laws, 266. 

Strickland, on classification, 288. 

Stuart, Prof. M., on the original act 
of creation, 350. 

Subordination, law of, stated, 64 ; il- 
lustrated from inorganic nature, 
107 ; from organic life, 184; from 
sentient existence, 263. 

Succession of vegetable worlds, 214. 

Supreme right, 40. 

Swainson, on animal adaptation and 
enjoyment, 319. 

Tertiary strata, 72 ; fossil flora of, 

175 ; fossil fauna of, 248. 
Theology, natural, 336—341. 
Tholuck, Prof., on the " Logos," 26, 

351. 

Tiedemann, on the ultimate character 

of life, 197. 
Transmutation of species, 274 — 278 ; 

of individual organs unknown, 276. 

Ultimate end, proximate ends concur 
with the, 271. 

Ultimate facts, law of, stated, 58 ; il- 
lustrated from inorganic nature, 
118 — 130; from organic life, 197 
— 200 ; from sentient existence, 
295—299. 

Ultimate purpose, 10. 

Unending display of Divine all- 
sufficiency, 12. 

Uniformity, law of, stated, 64 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 107 
— 109; from organic life, 185; 
from sentient existence, 265 — 267. 

Unity of organic composition, 168, 
250. 

Universe dependent, 8 ; its constitu- | 
tion mediatorial, 22 ; self-acting, 



without analogy, 125 ; material, 
magnitude of 146. 

Vegetable, did it precede animal, 
life? 161; variety of 204, 214; 
worlds, succession of, 214. 

Velocities of the heavenly bodies, 148. 

Vertebral classes, order of succession, 
249. 

" Vestiges of the Natural History of 
Creation," on continuity and deve- 
lopment, 95 ; on the relative dis- 
tances of the planets, 97 ; creation 
made independent, 120; anthropo- 
morphizing views of, 122 — 128 ; 
embryotic hypothesis of, 279. 

Vital functions, involuntary, 321. 

Well-being, law of, stated, 54 ; illus- 
trated from inorganic nature, 111; 
from organic life, 187 ; from sen- 
tient existence, 269 — 272. 

Whewell, Rev. Dr., on crystalliza- 
tion, 89 ; on laws of nature, 109 ; 
on gravitation, 117; contingency 
of natural laws, ib. ; on organiza- 
tion, 167, 172, 176 ; on final causes, 
169 ; on instinct, 233. 

Wisdom, what, 157 ; its display to be 
expected, 157 ; displayed, but not 
exclusively, in organic life, 159 ; 
creative, all-sufficiency of, 204 — 
207, 216—219 ; display of, not ab- 
solutely infinite, 206,215; infinity 
of inferrible, 216 ; unlimited, in re- 
lation to time, 217 ; increased dis- 
play of, 311, 327. 

Wiseman, Rev. Dr., on the interval 
between the original and the 
Adamic creation, 355. 

Words, progressive enlargement of 
their meaning, 244. 



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